All Hail The Queen! Book: 1
by Lady Helena Styvhals
Summary: Shibuya Yuri was known for being an energetic girl with very strong morals that one did well to follow when in her presence. But then, one day, after having saved an old aquaintance from two thugs, she suddenly finds herself pulled into the strangest of scenarios in a world of magic, monarchies, and men, lots and lots of men. Kyou Kara Maoh should I have been the writer.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Alrighty humans, I have taken a lot of liberties with the original storryline, as well as taken a whole lot of influence from the musical (If you haven't watched it, do it, it made me love Kyou Kara Maou even more than I have ever done before, even though the guy who plays Conrad can't sing for shit. The fact that the person who played Wolfram was a manly man of manliness helped a bit too). I will be changing a couple of scenes, prolonging scenes, adding scenes, and tweaking the storry to my hearts content because this is a fucking Fanfiction, and I can do what the hell I want.**

 **Plus, it's not like I can controll how my brain works.**

 **I promise, a lot of Yuuram/Wolfyuu moments (even though there is a strickt, no fluff, policy when it comes to my writing) with a lot of relationship development.**

 **I promise, a less oblivious Yuri, a Yuri who is much more observant to everything that is going on around.**

 **I will also be changing the environment. Just to put the warning out there.**

 **I promise a story that is a mix between the anime, the novels, the manga, and the musical.**

 **With that said, please read and decide for yourself what you think about what I'm doing with this storry.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

 **Down the fountain drain**

"Come on Yuri, just give me a chance." Kaito pleaded as he followed the black haired girl through the park, sneaking peaks at her backside as he went.

Could you really blame him? Those skin-tight dark-blue jeans capri pants, light blue tube-top and black cardigan hemmed with white and decorated with floral pattern left very little to the imagination. Hugging her figure that resembled one from the victorian age with her small breasts, absolutely tiny waist but surprisingly well rounded hips.

Then... there were the long arms and legs, fitted with just the right amount of muscle to not nessesarily be shown from under her lightly tanned skin.

Her long black hair had been braided down her back, ending in delicate curls at the tips.

Suddenly, the heeled light-blue sneakers stopped moving.

Thankfully, Kaito managed to keep himself from crashing right into her delicate frame and ruin all chances of ever getting with her.

A dainty hand sporting slender fingers tightened around the strap of the waterproof duffle-bag she had thrown over a fragile shoulder. He heard a breath being released from what he knew to be soft and plump naturally pink lips before she fully turned towards him, hr sparkling onyx eyes framed with long black eyelashes pinning him on the spot.

God he wanted this girl.

With her fragile body she should have no one other than the captain of the karate team as her man and boyfriend. If he was her boyfriend, he would be able to protect her.

"For the last time." Yuri spoke up, her voice ringing through his head like Christmas bells. God he had it bad for this girl, and she was barely 16! "The answer is no."

This should have made him feel like he had been rejected, but Kaito knew differently. The 17 year old high-school student knew for sure that the little lily standing in front of him was merely testing him. She wanted him just as much as he wanted her, but she just wanted to know if his feelings really were genuine.

Why couldn't this girl be more trusting? He would never hurt her.

But then again, he did make that one misstake once before about a year ago when he had first begun high-school...

Okay, again. He would never hurt her, again.

"Please." he begged, bending down from his length of a head taller than her, he could see his bleached caramel hair dangling in front of his eyes before he let his light brown eyes lock with the mesmerising black of his girl. He took the opportunity of their close proximity to grab a hold of her thin arms. Gently, mind you. "My life would be complete if I could only have you."

A scowl spread across her brow before she ripped herself away from him.

"You've already had your chance." she growled, her angelic voice dripping with hurt. "And you blew it. Horribly I might add."

This did take Kaito aback a little.

Yuri was known to have the patience of a saint, capable of putting up with practically anything without blowing a fuse, there were rumors of the few times she had actually snapped and according to him, they were all far-fetched for they spoke of his fragile, delicate angel beating up people. They all knew she wasn't capable of such a thing.

However... this was the first time he had actually seen legitemate anger on her beautiful face.

He had seen hurt, and he very much regretted having put that expression there, but he had never actually seen her angry.

"Yuri..." he tried, reaching out his hand towards her again, but she stepped away from him.

"Don't touch me!" she exclaimed.

He noticed how her knuckles whitened around the strap of her bag.

He really weren't making things better for himself, did he?

Dejectedly, Kaito let out a deep sigh, letting his head fall as he took a few steps away from Yuri, letting her have her space.

"Fine." he held up his hands for empathis. "I'll go away."

He looked up just in time to see an expression of relief wash over his girl's features, once again allowing her to become the beautiful girl he has been in love with for so many years.

Why the hell did he have to make such a huge fucking misstake?

"But know this." the relief vanished as soon as it had arrived. "I will never give up on you Shibuya Yuri." he pledged, his eyes narrowing at his serious words and his voice deepening. "I will have you again."

And with that, he turned around, and walked away. His mind buzzing with the many different ideas on just how to win her back, as well as the thoughts on what the two of them were going to do once he succeeded.

God, he was getting turned on just thinking about it.

Little did he know that, in just a few minutes (to him), Shibuya Yuri would come off the market.

* * *

The black haired girl stared exhasperatedly at the back of her ex-boyfriend Takagi Kaito as he walked away from her, his strong shoulders swaying in that stubborn swagger that had once captured her interest but now only made her shudder at what an upleasant person only his walk was telling her he was.

To think she hadn't caught onto that before the man broke her heart right in front of her eyes.

She shook her head to rid herself of the unpleasant memories.

As much as her relationship with Takagi had turned out to be nothing but disasterous, she couldn't help but to silently thank him for doing that to her. It had opened her eyes to the world around her, forcing her to become more observant, to pay more attention to the people around her and capable of judging a persons character and intentions from afar through a mix of what she could see and what her gut was telling her about someone.

She was determined to never go through the same heartbreak ever again.

She didn't allow herself to move until Takagi's figure had disappeared around the bend.

Sighing heavily, she turned around to face one of two stairways leading down the side of a concrete wall sporting a fountain at the center.

That man would never give up on her, just as she would never give him a second chance.

Everyone who knew her knew that she believed everyone deserved a second chance, but they didn't know that there was an acception to that belief, and that was people who had made her feel absolutely violated and didn't seem to understand just what it was that had made her feel that way in the first place.

She knew that Takagi still believed that she was deeply in love with him, and that was why she would never give him a second chance.

So long as he still had that arrogance, there was a risk of him doing the exact same thing to her all over again.

Takagi Kaito was in her past.

Now she was hoping to find someone truly magnificent that would be happy just to have her, and then, she would be able to reject Takagi on a more permanent level. She didn't care if the man was the ugliest or dorkiest being in Japan, so long as she could be with him and not constantly fear that he would do exactly what Takagi had done.

Then again, she's not as oblivious as she had been when she had first started dating that jerk.

She shook her head, bringing up her hand to brush her fringe out of her eyes.

She had spent too much time thinking about that bastard, it was about time she went home.

One hand resting on the railing, she made to walk down.

She stopped as she saw what was going on at the foot of the stairs.

There, just a few feet away from the fountain, were two boys in what appeared to be 18, ganging up on a figure that Yuri recognized all too well.

Murata Ken.

They had been in the same class during middle-school, and she liked to think that the two of them had been what she called 'classroom aquaintances'. Of cource, she had yet to develop her skills of observation back then, but now that she finally saw him again in his prep-school uniform after so many years...

Well, she hadn't been all that wrong in what she had thought of him back then.

He was a bit of a geek, and from the way he moved when the two bullies shoved at him, stronly opposed to violence. However, even though the two guys both towever over him, her ex-classmate remained completely calm, annoyed even.

She frowned at this.

Was he so used to bullying that it just didn't phase him anymore, or were there another story behind this strange and unnatural reaction?

She got a glimpse of his mischievous side when he bent down to pick up his disguarded wallet on the paved ground. Suddenly, his head shot up and he pointed blindly into the distance with a loud and surprised:

"Ah!"

Of course, stupid as they were, the two bullies fell for the pathetic excuse of a distraction. Something Yuri was sure Murata knew they would do, giving her past aquaintance ampel time to rush towards one of the stairways.

And he just happened to pick the one she was standing at the top of.

Of course he did.

He got half-way up the stairway when he finally lifted his head, and his eyes locked on her body.

With that one look, he absolutely froze the same moment one word blared up into the front of Yuri's mind.

 _Pervert._

She didn't know exactly what it was that had set off the mental alarm she had given herself over the year. If it was the way he had seemingly casually let his eyes wander over her from her feet to her eyes or if it simply was because he had frozen when he had seen her, but she didn't really care that much about the details. All she knew was that her intuition told her that her previous classmate was a pervert, and so, she was going to be careful whenever she saw him.

Too bad for the newly named pervert, him freezing up at the sight of her was just what the two bullies needed to grab a hold of the back of his blue blazer and haul him back down towards the fountain, pressing him up against the concrete wall.

Yuri could feel her blood pumping at the sight of this.

She was a girl with a strong moral ground, with strong beliefs in what is right from wrong. They were so strong in fact, that she just couldn't stand seeing anyone breaking them.

She clenched her hand around the strap of her bag, desperately trying to avoid the raiging desire to march down there and let the two bullies know just what she thought about their current activity. Something that the local thugs liked to call:

Collecting.

Biting her lower lip, she tried to just turn away. Nothing good could ever come out of approaching two thugs that were just about twize as large as herself.

She put one foot behind her and twisted around, preparing to walk off when suddenly.

"Shibuya!"

Why did Murata have to call out to her? Did he think that she could actually do something against those two that still had him pressed up against the wall? Then again... perhaps something like this could work out for him...

Either way, now that he has called out her name, there was no way she could just leave him there.

Squaring her shoulders, Yuri prayed that her acting abilities would be suficient enough, and that the two thugs were idiotic enough for it to work.

She let out an exhagerated sigh, loud enough for the three males to head her.

"Murata, what have you gotten yourself into now?" she made sure not to use any honorfics, he hadn't used any when adressing her, and it would make it sound as though the two of them were closer than they actually were.

The two thugs snapped their heads up at her, and their eyes widened considderably.

Yuri kept her eyes pinned on Murata, silently telling him to play along.

At the twitch at the corner of his lips, she knew that he had caught onto her plan.

"I didn't mean for this to happen you know." he replied, sounding rather bored with the fist clenched around the front of his shirt. "I'm apparently what they call a..." he rolled his wrist in the air, acting as though he was searching for the word when Yuri knew that he already had every word planned out in his head. "An easy target."

She shook her head in an exhasperated manner, rolling her eyes in the way a theatre actor would. Straightening the strap of her duffle-bag, she slowly strode down the stairs with an air of authority around her that she herself, was not aware of.

Watching her, Murata's glasses momentarily glaced over.

The thugs were watching her too, only they looked as though they had never seen anything quite like her before in all their years of life. Which, to Yuri, was quite odd considdering she was just a little above average in the looks department, good enough to make someone throw a second glance but not enough to hold them for long.

As she reached the foot of the stairs, the thug holding the front of Murata's shirt, dropped it as if he had completely forgotten that Murata was even there, and stepped up to Yuri.

"Look what we have here..." the thug mused, stepping in close to her body, his eyes running up and down her fragily frame appretiatively. Yuri wondered if the man was about to lick his lips just to make his interest more obvious than it already were. He turned his head up to meet her eyes. "You the geeks girlfriend?"

Yuri let out a soft snort.

"He wishes."

She turned her eyes towards Murata, Sparkling onyx meeting midnight as their gaces locked.

Of course, black hair and black eyes was a more than comon combo in Japan, so she didn't think too much about it.

At her coment, Murata raised one of his eyebrows.

"So, you're free then?" the thug asked, his a little less than attractive face adopting what he probably thought was an attractive and seductive expression, but the look just made Yuri want to break out in hysterical laugher.

It looked so stupid.

"Shibuya?" Murata spoke, his voice sounding just on the border of being worried, but Yuri doubted the two thugs would be able to catch it with their level of inteligence.

She looked at him again, silently telling him to shut up.

He gave her a look that asked her just what she was thinking.

Taking a deep breath, Yuri threw a pointed glance down at her left hand, the hand that wasn't currently wrapped around the strap of her duffle-bag.

Frowning, Murata followed.

Looking back at the thug, Yuri extended her left index finger twice before turning it in towards her thumb in a silent and quick message of: 1.1.0.

Eyes widening slightly, Murata stared at Yuri, his expression asking Yuri if she was joking.

Keeping her eyes on the thug in front of her, who was actually leaning in closer to her than before, Yuri discreetely lifted her hand up in Murata's direction and perform a slight 'sho'ing gesture with the back of her fingers.

Murata appeared to be hesitant to leave, but finally, he slowly began to back away, eyes glancing towards the two thugs whos attentions were entierly focused on Yuri.

Finally, he spun around, and sprinted from the scene.

The two thugs didn't realize that something was going on until they heard Murata's footsteps as he disappeared up the staircase, this time without distractions and thus, they lost him.

"Oi!" the two angrily shouted after the boy.

Yuri briefly wondered if they were actually stupid enough to believe that he would stop if they called out to him. Thankfully, for their sanity's sake, they only called out once.

Then... they turned on her.

"You little bitch..." the one standing closest to her mumbled, getting even closer to her than he was before (if that was even possible) without actually touching her. She could smell his breath as it brushed over her nose, it almost made her cough at the heavy scent of nicotine hidden within the otherwise unhealthy stench of his breath.

She didn't want to know what he put in his mouth.

"You helped our bank escape." he leaned in even further towards her, forcing her to bend her back to keep a steady distance between his face and hers. "How are you going to compensate us?" his mouth quirked up in a smug expression, his mind obviously realing with the different ideas on how she could 'conpensate' them.

"I don't know." Yuri said, keeping her voice steady as she leaned her back further and further the more the thug in front of her leaned forward. She glanced over his shoulder to note that the other thug was just standing there, lightly jealous but remained still.

So the one closer to her was the brains of the busines eh?

Turning her attention back to the thug obviously detemined to get his face as close to hers as possible, or probably until her back couldn't bend any further.

She felt herself smirk.

These guys were absolute idiots.

Quicker than either thug could process, Yuri relaced all of the muscles in her back, allowing herself to bend completely backwards, folding herself in the opposite direction than normal people were able. With her hands solidly on the ground she kicked up with her legs before her bag had the time to fully slide down her arm.

As her luck would have it, the toe of her wedge-heeled coverse caught the thug under the chin, sending him sprawling backwards as she landed with either foot firm on their own step of the stairway. She looked the thugs over, studying their movements.

The one that hadn't been right in front of her had caught his friend as he had fallen and they were both staring at her, eyes wide in disbelief.

Yeah, that's what you get for trying to corner a gymnast.

"YOU BITCH!" The leader bellowed as he shot up from the ground, his chin already bruising from the force of her kick. "You're going to pay for that."

"I think not..." Yuri muttered to herself before she let her bag drift down her arm to her hand as the thug rushed towards her.

With as much force as she could manage, she swung her bag straight towards the man's head, sending him once again tumbling, but her bag was a lot softer than her shoes so she could only hope that the momentum of it would be enough to keep him daced for a couple of more seconds.

Not waiting for the thug to clear his head, Yuri jumped high into the air, flipping herself so that she was able to put her hand on the top of the second thug's head, her weight making his legs buckle under him at the suddenness of it before she pushed off, sending the thug crashing to the ground as she once again expertly flipped her body so that she could land safely, and steadily, on the edge of the fountain.

She watched the two daced thugs with a feeling of mixed guilt and accomplishment, once again securing her bag over her shoulder.

"One should never underestimate a lady." she stated before spinning around oun her heel and walked along the fountain's edge with balance equal to that of a cats.

This was where she realized that her inteligence must have been compromised by the idiocy of these thugs, for she should have known she should have taken off running immediately. For if she had realized one thing with these thugs, it was that they were pretty damn persistent.

A hand wrapped itself around her ankle.

"You're not getting away." the thug that had, up until that point, done nothing but staring had managed to pull himself off of the ground, and was now staring at her with the outmost murder in his light brown eyes.

She had been wrong to dismiss this man.

Without warning, the man yanked on her ankle, causing Yuri to loose all her balance and sending her crashing into the body of water behind her. Her minimal weight didn't cause that much of a splash, but a loud 'thud' rang through the air before the water calmed around her.

She wasn't moving.

The two thugs slowly picked themselves off the ground, moving to look into the water. Even through their thick skulls, they knew that a girl of her physical condition should have been able to get out of that water a long time ago.

The color drained from their faces as they saw her.

She was lying face-up in the water, somehow managing to keep herself afloat, her eyes were closed as though she was sleeping, but they could see the red liquid trickle into the water from somewhere at the back of her head.

"This is bad." the guy who had grabbed her ankle whispered, guilt heavy in his eyes.

"Let's get out of here." the other one said, grabbing hold of his friend's arm, attempting to tug him away from the scene.

"But, what about-?" the guy didn't get the chance to finish before his friend knocked him over the head.

"Do you want to go to jail?"

And with that, the two boys set off running, leaving the girl floating in the fountain, her hand tighly grasping at the strap of her duffle-bag.

What they didn't know, was that because of them, Shibuya Yuri was able to take that first step towards her destiny.

* * *

The figure appeared out of nowhere.

At least, that is what the rider will tell anyone who is willing to listen.

At first, it had been nothing but a slight bubbling from the bottom of the river, then, suddenly, the bubbles grew larger and started to reach the surface at a much faster pace until it resembled the boiling water inside of the largest brand of cauldron one could get their hands on, and it only became worse.

Finally, the river had turned into a violent but rather small geyser, spewing up the water, letting it rain down on the surrounding environment as well as the rider.

Once the water calmed down, the rider was able to bring down the mantle he had thrown over his head at the last minute to cover himself from the shower just in time to see something float down the stream of the river in his direction.

He couldn't really see it clearly, but what he did see was what looked like a braid of black hair, and that was enough to get him to jump off the horse and sprint right into the river.

The resistance the water gave to his movements did little to brighten up his seemingly permanent sulky mood, but he did manage to catch the figure by a surprisingly thin wrist attatched to a dainty, feminy hand sporting slender fingers tipped with long uneaven nails (obviously a nail-biter then). The man let his fingertips run over the palm of the female's hand, trying to figure out what could have possibly gotten her into the river from her physical stature.

Whilst he did feel the beginning of a couple of callouses forming on certain parts of the palm, they weren't callouses recieved from any form of weapon training. In fact, he had no idea what could possibly create that kind of hardening on those particular areas at all.

The man threw a suspicious glance down at the female, only to find that her head was turned downwards with her face completely submerged in the water, and there was an area just a little bit to the left of the back of her head that didn't look right to him.

Carefully, the man reached out his hand to touch the area, and when he pulled back his limb, he found that the tips of his fingers were covered in blood.

He let out a long sigh.

The misstreatment of the fairer gender was something he despised above everything, even if he has given up a lot of his previous morals over the past twenty years.

Groaning a little under his breath, the man turned the girl over, pulling her face out of the water whilst still keeping her head elevated above the surface. Water kept wounds from clotting, and since head injureies are among the areas that blead the most, that would most certainly lead to the girls untimely death.

And quite frankly, he didn't want the have this female's blood on his hands, especially since he held to personal grudge against her and he didn't even know who she was.

Maybe he would let her die _after_ he knew who she was, but that was something to think about another time.

Now, he had a life to save.

For she was still alive, he could feel the faint pulsing of a heartbeat from where his fingertips brushed against her throat, so there was definately still hope of her making it out alive.

Looking down at the onconscious female, the man was surprised to find that the girl looked to be barely more than sixteen years old, if she was even that. Now all he needed to know was whether or not she was human, if she was not... well... then he would know weather to kill her or not wouldn't he?

Bringing the girl out of the river, the man felt an odd weight from her right arm. Looking down, he saw the strangest type of bag he had ever seen tighly clutched in the girl's dainty little hand.

He raised an eyebrow at this.

She had managed to keep a firm enough grasp on that thing for her grip not to loosen even after she had gotten the back of her head smashed in and dumped in a river where she had then proceeded to drift down for the spirits know how long and then get picked up?

She must be pretty damn determined to succeed in doing that.

He threw a look at the girl's pieceful yet pained expression.

He couldn't help but to admit to himself that the girl was a very beautiful little thing. He could clearly see her idealistic figure through the damp, clingy clothes she wore, her pale yet tanned skin was a healthy contrast to her ebony black locks. Her face was heart-shaped with a button-up nose and plump Cupid's bow lips. He couldn't actually see her eyes, but he could see the long black eyelashes that would be framing them. Her arms and legs were long and thin, but he could feel a solid muscle build underneath the skin, just not ones nessesarily for fighting.

He frowned as he stepped out of the river.

Just who was this girl?

As gently as he could, he laid the girl down onto the ground, carefully guidng her head so that her wound wasn't touching the ground.

Deaming her position good enough, the man got up from the ground and headed over to his horse whom still stood exactly where he had left her. Loyal things these horses.

Opening up his saddle-pack, he shifted through it's insides before his hand closed around a phial barely large enough to peak through his hand when his fingers were wrapped around it.

Phial in hand, he turned back towards the unconscious girl.

A small puddle of blood had started forming under her and her skin was turning whiter by the second. He glanced down at the phial with a pondering look.

Should he really waste such a precious content on a girl he didn't even know if he was going to kill shortly after she had woken up?

But then again...

Who was he to know if the content was as effective as he had been promised?

May as well try it out on this dying girl, ensure that he hadn't just gone through all of that life-threatening things to get something an old loon said worked.

Kneeling down next to the girl, he took off the lid of the phial to reveal that it was a pippette bottle, the man carefully sucked up a couple of bright pink drops into the glass, smililing in a rather smug manner as the color brightened the closer it got to the girl's open wound.

Carefully, he let the liquid drop into the crack of the girl's skull, and his eyes positively brightened as he watched it immediately get to work.

He watched as the girl's skull started to knit itself together over where the drop had landed, slowly followed by the skin tisue and stopped there. The man kept on dripping the liquid into the girl's wound one by one, watching with great interest as the wound slowly closed, not only that, but the color began to return to the girl's skin little by little until it practically shone with health and energy that the man had absolutely no doubt the girl possessed when awake.

She probably would have been quite the sight for sore eyes had it not been for the blood clotting up her hair the way it did.

Suddenly, as the man was puting the lid back on the phial, the girl began to stir, her eyelids fluttering as she let out light groans that would make the softness of a feather rough in comparrison. But the man had heard one voice far more beautiful.

He stood up, looking down at the girl as she slowly began to turn her head from side to side, flexing her fingers, finally releasing her iron grip on that ridiculous looking bag, and at last, he witnessed her eyelids fluttering open and closed, revealing the mystery color of those orbs.

His own eyes widened.

No... she couldn't be... it was supposed to be a man!

* * *

Yuri let out a long groan as the light slipped in through the crack between her eyelids, possitively blinding her as she tried to regain her grasp on reality.

It wasn't working all that well.

She grasped at the ground under her, freezing up in surprise at, in stead of feeling her fingertips gracing over asphalt, she felt the unmistakable sensation of long, wild, grass mixed in with the occational piece of gravel.

There were no such location in Tokyo the last time she checked.

Fully opening her eyes, Yuri found herslf staring up at a fuzzy bright blue.

Okay... so she now knew that she was outside and not some freakish conservatory somewhere.

That's a start...

Groaning, she blinked rapidly until finally, finally, her vision started to clear up.

The sky was even bluer than she remembered it to be. Vaster ith even more brightly colored clouds than she had ever seen, the sun even looked a bit bigger in comparison, and if that wasn't strange enough, she could immediately tell that the air here, were a thousand times cleaner than Tokyo's air ever has or probably ever will be.

Just what was going on here?

With a slight winch, Yuri lifted up her hand to let it rest on her forehead, only to find it sticky and slimy with what she first thought was water, until she realized that the substance was far to thick to be that, and she felt herself growing pale.

Reaching up to her hair where the sticky substance seemed to be at it's thickest, she let her fingertips sink into it just a bit, slowly, she brought her hand back into her line of vision, allowing herself to peer up at whatever resedue had been left on her skin.

At the sight of the red liquid coating the tips of her fingers, Yuri felt like she was about to throw up. Her stomach coiling in on her and her eyes widening in distress.

This wasn't happening... this just wasn't happening.

Of all the things she could be soaked it, why did it have to be _that_ liquid?

Suddenly, a deep bass voice rang through the air, originating from somewhere at her left side. The only problem was... she couldn't understand a word he was saying.

The language sounded as though it was a combination between German and Swedish, with a sing-song tone to it but with those odd, chopped of noises that she suspected would be very dificult for a foreigned like her to duplicate.

She tried to move her head in the direction of the voice, her eyebrows scrunching up as she desperately tried to desipher what the man had just said.

He spoke again, only to Yuri's confusion, about half-way through the one word that rang through the air, the language seeminly spontaniously switched to Japanese.

"... irl."

Now she was even more confused.

Just what kind of person desides to switch language mid-word like that?

Shaking her head slightly, she found that she didn't get dizzy from the action. Carefully, she braised her arms on the ground, slowly pushing herself off of the graveled grass, feeling her spine poping back into place in multiple areas as she did.

She must have lain in a terrible position then.

She winched slightly as she finally found herself sitting upright. She winched as she felt how her hair was sticking in uncomfortable masses to the back of her head. She couldn't even imagine what a mess she probably appeared to be at the moment, and that thought really didn't sit too well with her.

She may not care much for her nails, but she did pride herself in her personal hygiene.

Then, she noticed her surroundings.

What... the... hell?

The last time she checked, she had been in a park, in Tokyo, with large concrete buildings for as far as the eye could see. Not next to a river running paralell with a graveled road in what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere!

Not to mention, she was freezing through her soaked clothing.

Looking around at the tall, thick, seemingly ancient trees that surrounded her, Yuri brought up her arms, rubbing them to try and warm up, if only for a little bit. She was shaking quite violently even though the air around her was only just a few degrees colder than it had been when she had lost consciousness.

Just how long had she been out?

"What is the matter with you?" the bass voice asked, sounding very much annoyed with her.

Turning her head to the left, Yuri almost let out a scream.

Right there, stood a tall, hulking man in what appeared to be his mid thirties, with the figure of an americal football player. He had a head of wavy sandy-blonde hair, tanned skin and a pair of the most striking pair of dark blue eyes she had ever seen.

He was very handsome, in a bruteish sort of way.

It hadn't really been the fact that this man was a very attractive foreigner that had caught Yuri by surprise. No, it was the fact that the man was wearing what appeared to be mixed-era clothing. A mixture of victorian, medieval, renisance, and edwardian.

She had never seen clothing quite like that, and they looked to be too well made to have been created for some form of cosplay event or stageplay, so her only other option would be the shooting of a fantasy movie, only she definately hadn't signed up to be a part of one and she highly doubted that anyone of the cast would be allowed this far off into nowhere whilst still in costime.

She would have had a themed amusement park on the list but she could see no attractions anywhere and the landscape was so open that she could see for miles over the flush green hills and forests, following the graveled road until it was little more than a line in the distance.

At least, on the side that wasn't obscured by a large, dense forest in which the road soon vanished among the shadows.

What in the world was going on?!

She turned her eyes back on the man who looked as though he wanted nothing more than to draw the beautifully decorated sword he had attatched to his belt and run her through with it.

What a pleasant fellow (note the sarcasm).

Shifting slightly on the ground, Yuri threw a pointed glance around her.

"Where am I?" she was a little surprised at how weak her voice sounded.

The man seemed to straighten at the sound of her voice, though he kept his eyes firmly pinned on her figure, staring down at her as though that alone would be enough to intimidate her.

It was working.

Yuri suddenly felt the desperate need to look at anything other than the man standing over her. Turning her head away to once again stare at the line of trees.

She frowned when she realized that she didn't recognize any of them as trees usually grown in Japan.

"At the outskirts of Shin Makokue." the man answered, almost spitting out the name.

Yuri did a double-take.

"I'm sorry... where?" she snapped her head in his direction, which she really shouldn't have done if the massive wave of dizziness was anything to go by.

The man rolled his eyes exhasperatedly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Don't more your head around too much you silly girl." he said, though his voice told Yuri that he truly didn't care weather or not she listened to his words, almost like he was saying them out of duty or as a favor for someone else, and not actual care. "Your wound has just healed."

She frowned up at the man.

"What wound?"

The man rolled his eyes again.

"Where else did you think the blood came from?" Yuri felt herself flinch at that dreaded word. "The wound you had at the back of your skull." the man continued, seemingly not noticing Yuri's flinch. Or, he really didn't care, which Yuri felt was a much, much more acurate choice.

Feeling weaker than ever, Yuri brought up her hand back to where the... sticky substance, was at it's thickest. Letting her fingers sink in deeper through her messed up locks, desperately trying not to be vomit as she did, she traced her fingertips over the skin, trying to find any indication that there actually had been an injury there. But not matter how much she stroked, or how hard she pressed, the best she could feel was a jolt of pain when she pressed down on one particular area, but the pain was more like the one you get when pressing down on a bump than the scar of a wound.

In face, she couldn't feel a scar at all.

"You wont find anything." the man said, forcing Yuri to snap her attention back to him. Though this time, she took care not to move her head around too quickly.

The man looked rather smug with himself as he held out a phial in front of Yuri's face.

It was light brown in color, and made of glass. She could see that it was almost completely full with some form of liquid that was too thick to be water but not thick enough to be... that sticky substance running unerneath the skin.

She glanced up at the man questioningly.

"What is this?"

The man's smug expression only grew wider at her confusion.

He was enjoying this a bit to much for her liking.

"This..." the man said, bringing up the phial to eye-level with himself as he bent down on one knee next to Yuri on the grass. "Is a special and complex mixture of the Babbiley root and a blossom from the sobbing willows." he said this witch such a cocky tone and air of superiority that Yuri couldn't help but to feel as though she had missed something.

"Am I supposed to know what that it?" she found herself asking before she could stop herself.

The man's smugness vaned, replaced with a strange mixture of intrigue and annoyance.

Don't ask how that works, the man somehow did it anyway.

"How old are you, girl?" he asked, his deep voice almost no louder than a whisper, as though her age was supposed to be some sort of big, dark secret.

Well... had she been a middle-aged woman it probably would be but...

"15." she answered truthfully. "16 in a few months."

For a split second, the man looked surprised.

What? Did she look like she was ten? or even 57?

"You're a human?" the man asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"Of course I'm human!" Yuri snapped back, sounding quite insulted. "What else would I be if I weren't human?"

The man stared at her for a moment, then, a smirk spread out over his lips.

"Eh..." he chuckled. "This is going to be interesting."

Yuri frowned at his words.

"What is?"

The man chuckled again, getting back to his feet as he slipped the phial into his left pocket.

"Don't you think about that." he insisted, though Yuri doubted she would be able to let that one go that easily, though she decided it would be better if she didn't try to push him. The man looked like he was strong enough to rip her apart at the waist by wrapping his arms around it.

She shuddered at the very thought.

"More importantly." the man said, forcing Yuri's attention back to him. "How did you recieve that kind of injury anyway?"

This brought a confused frown to Yuri's face. Once again turning her head away from the man so that she may try to gather up her memories.

The last thing she could remember was one of the thugs grabbing hold of her ankle, and the sensation of falling backwards... but nothing to indicate that she had recieved an injury to the back of her head, everything was just black after that. Now if she had recieved a sprained ankle, that would be another story, but a blow to the back of her head...

"I... I don't..." she muttered, pressing the tips of her fingers to her temple. "I can't remember."

The man let out a light 'hm' in responce.

"No matter." the man said, reaching down to grab a hold of Yuri's upper arm, yanking her upwards without giving her any form of warning.

"Hey, what are you-?" Yuri tried asking as she attempted to struggle her arm out of the man's grip, but he just tightened his fingers around her limb. It had been the pain of the grip that had forced her to stop talking, replacing her words with a pained whine.

"You're coming with me." the man stated, piercing her with his bright blue eyes.

"What?" Yuri whimpered.

All the man did was give her a down-right menacing smile.

* * *

 **A/N: Well... that was the first chapter of book 1.**

 **Please review or leave a coment, I really want to know what you think.**

 **Also, the program I'm using for my writing doesn't have a spell-check for the English language so if anyone could offer themselves up to be my beta reader, that would be very much appretiated.**

 **I'm using the term 'offer themselves up', because I have the terrible feeling that there are many, many more errors in this than I would like to know. And the fact that I have this horrible habit of loosing interest in what I am writing mid-through.**

 **Anyways, I thank all of you humans for reading and I'll be back with the second chapter as soon as I can.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Alrighty humans, this chapter is a little shorter than the previous one but I didn't want to include the human refugee village and Günter in this chapter and there is just so much one can prolong a scene without making it too dragged out.**

 **So... out of nowhere I created an OC, that... with a little more though, actually managed to worm himself back as I thought about the story's progression. I quite liked how he turned out and I hope you like him as well.**

 **Please enjoy.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2:**

 **Knight in brown leather**

"Hey!" Yuri exclaimed as she was suddenly hieved up onto the mans wide, strong left shoulder as though she was little more than a potato sack. "Let me down!" she screamed, clenching her fists as she desperately pounded at his cape-clad back.

The man only laughed as though her punches dealt him just as much pain as the punches of an eight month old baby would.

This really did not sit well with Yuri.

She was perfectly capable of dealing with the bastards she pass when out on the streets in Tokyo, defending her friends and herself with her gymnastics skills as well as chasing away any male that wasn't an absolute idiot like Takagi Kaito. So why couldn't she deal with this guy?

Oh, right... because he was the size of a frickin' bear!

"Punch me all you like girl." the man said as he hooked his arm at the fold of her knees. "You'll be coming with me whether you like it or not."

"That's a deffinate, not." Yuri retorted, throwing one last punch at the man's spine area.

Man, if she got out of this, Yuri was definately learning about pressure points so she could take down people like that one girl from that American cartoon 'Avatar'.

She had been living in America until her first year in middle-school, of course she would be fluent in the language.

She let out a loud, frustrated sigh as she felt the man starting to walk. Her thin body swayed on his shoulder with each step he took and in her annoyance, she brazed her elbow somewhere underneath his shoulder-blade and rested her chin into the palm of her hand.

How in the world were she supposed to get out of this one?

Glancing down, she noticed the top of the phial sticking out of the man's surpsisingly loose-fitting pants.

 _'Well,'_ she thought to herself. _'So long as I'm here.'_

* * *

Having her face directed to the man's back, there was no way in which Yuri could know just where he was walking. All she could see was how she was getting further and further away from her blue duffle-bag that was still lying there, discarded on the river-bank.

How had she not noticed it there before? And on another note, how did it even come with her to this strange place to begin with?

He had only been walking for about... a hundred meters when she heard the neighing of a horse, though it was slightly different than the regular neigh. It was deeper, and for some reason, she thought it had sounded a bit surprised.

"We'll be having company for the rest of the way Aina." the man chuckled, giving Yuri a violent enough shake that she couldn't help the surprised shriek that escaped from between her lips.

The man chuckled again at her reaction.

She could feel how his hand reached up to the small of her back, ready to throw her onto the horse when suddenly, a sound reached their ears.

A sound originating from the thick forest on their side.

The sound, of galoping horses.

Both Yuri and the man started at the sound.

"Damn it." the man cursed, his arm tightening around Yuri's waist as he attempted to throw her up over the horse.

Now this, Yuri would definately not allow.

For some reason, this man did not want anyone else to see her, and he wanted her on the horse and away from this area as soon as possible. So in other words, whomever it was riding on those horses, probably were his enemies.

What was that English saying again?

'My enemy's enemy is my friend'?

Well, too bad for blonde that Yuri has decided she really didn't like him then.

The second Yuri felt herself being lowered from the man's shoulder, she started the kicking. Flailing her legs wherever they could reach, hoping to hit something that would cause enough pain for him to get his gorilla-like hands off of her body.

Gods, why did she have to be so light?

Thankfully, at the very least her flailing made it harder for the man to throw her on top of his horse, so he just held her there, in the air, trying to adoid her violent movements as the momentum of her legs caused her entire torso to move, along with her elbows that constantly came dangerously close to knocking him in the nose.

"Stop struggling." the man growled, pressing his hands into her waist, hoping that the pain would make her stop, but that only made her struggle harder than before.

As if she would listen to him.

As the sounds of galloping grew louder, Yuri decided that she had had quite enough of this man touching her the way he did. So she decided to resort to her secret weapons.

Now, she may not care that much for her nails, but she did love the one aspect to them.

Whilst they did look quite ugly and blunt, they were anything but. When she bit her nails, she pierced along the edge of them with her canines before ripping the outlined piece off, and this incidentally left her nail's edge very uneaven, jagged, and also, very sharp.

With a cry, Yuri slashed across the man's face, her nails scraping over his right cheek.

The man actually let out a loud cry of pain, much to Yuri's surprise. She had expected him to just stand there, probably shocked still for a couple of seconds, enough for Yuri to get out of his hold, but no. In stead, she got a loud cry in pain as he dropped her to the ground before he clutched at his face.

She didn't stay on the ground.

No, almost the second she had been dropped, Yuri crawled away from the man before shooting to her feet and rushing back to the riverbank where her bag was still waiting for her.

No way in hell was she going to leave behind her bag somewhere unknown for anyone to find, the think contained spare underwear for crying out loud!

She had just reached her bag, clutching it to her when she was once again grabbed by the ankle.

Letting out a scream that was the combination between fear and surprise, Yuri was yanked backwards, turned to her back so that she was once again face-to-face with the man, and this time, he was absolutely furious.

She could see that her nails had left behind four marks over his cheek, not breaking through the first layer of skin so it most definately wouldn't scar, but it was bright red from the force her hand had gone down on it with. Quietly to herself, she thanked her nails for not having drawn blood, for if she had been in this same situation with his cheek bleading...

Well... it wouldn't boad well.

"You bitch!" the man screamed, grabbing hold of her still soaked leg to pull her even closer as he reached into his belt and pulled out his long, decorated sword. "You'll pay for that."

The man raised the sword above his head, fully prepared to end her life with one well-placed blow somewhere she honestly didn't want to know.

She screamed, loud enough that she almost didn't hear the voice that called out at the top of his lungs.

"YURI!"

She feelt the tip of the blade pierce through the fabric of her tube-top when suddenly:

 **CLANG!**

The tip of the sword slashed through the tip of her top, revealing her white bra underneath. The bra intself was unharmed and so was the soaked cardigan, not to mention, she herself had not been scewered like a shich kebab.

Dazed, she stared at the man whom had been so close to killing her, only to find him glancing at his sword. She looked at it as well, and noticed a tiny, almost invisible nick in the metal.

She turned her head a little to the right, and there, only a few meters away, sprouted an arrow from the ground.

Who the hell could have..?

To have shot an arrow with the target in motion like that...?

Yuri could do little more than gape at the arrow that had just saved her life.

Once again, the voice called out, only this time, both she and the man were able to hear it as clear as the signing of a bird in the early morning.

"YURI!"

Snapping their heads in the direction of the voice, they saw a tall man with the physical structure of a Marine or Navy official. He was dressed in brown pants with a sword hanging from his belt and of all things, a brown leather jacket.

The second her eyes fell on the man, Yuri felt her heart flutter.

The man had just jomped clean off his chestnut horse (that which Yuri couldn't help but to notice was about twize the size of a regular horse), and sprinted towards them faster than anything she had ever seen in her life.

The sound of galoping still sounded from the forest.

How frickin' fast had this new arrival been riding?

The man that had just attempted to kill her rose from the ground, turning his full atention to the other man as the guy drew his own sword.

Quickly, Yuri crawled away from her would-be kidnapper, still clutching at her bag.

The two men met met, swords clashing violently between them. Yuri could only watch helplessly as the scene unfolded in front of her.

With the two men keeping their swords locked, Yuri was able to get a good look at the newcomer.

He had the face of a Hollywood actor, a healthy tanned skin that spoke of consistent outside activity and kind features that were, for the moment, furrowed into an angry expression as he stared at the man that had just almost killed her. His hair was a bit on the short side, just barely brushing over his ears and a lighter color of brown.

Yuri didn't understand why... but she felt as though she knew this man.

"Get away from her, Adalbert!" the newcomer demanded, his voice a darker tenor that would have been soft had it not been for the anger seeping into it.

Yuri mentally noted down that the guy that had just tried to kill her was named Adalbert.

Great, at least now she would be able to tell the two men appart when speaking about them. The new man at the very least looked as though he was in his early twenties.

Adalbert smirked at the new man, throwing his away with a thrust of his sword.

Eyes locked, the two men began cirkling one another. Yuri took this time to get as far away from the scene as she could whist still on the ground. Her ankle was aching something terrible after have two people yanking on it so she doubted she would be capable of standing up or even running without colapsing due to the pain.

"Why are you encroaching upon our borders?" the newcomer asked, his voice driping with acid as he adressed the man.

Adalbert chuckled at the newcomers temper.

"You're the same as ever, Weller-Kyo." Adalbert voiced with a mocking tone, turning towards the newcomer (Weller?) as he raised the sword, preparing for an assault. "Mr. Hero-among-cowards." he said this part with an obvious sneer to his face. She didn't even need to see it in order to know that it was there.

As Yuri watched the scene, she couldn't help but to notice how Weller kept glancing in her direction, seeming to check if she was alright.

"Kaka!" sounded a voice from the shadows of the forest.

She had all but forgotten about the galloping sounds until two large horses of the same apparent make as the one Weller had arrived on burst through the opening in the trees. She hadn't noticed that there had been a second horse arriving with Weller, one who's rider had jumped off as the two men had crossed swords.

The man wasn't as attractive as Weller, but he wasn't lacking in the looks department either, with straight ginger hair cut in a similar manner as Weller, only he was wearing a strange king of leather chestplate combines with shoulder-pads with nothing on, cream colored pants and dark brown hose for soes that went all the way up to his thighs.

The two new riders were wearing the exact same thing, only they each had a full-arm tattoo running down one arm.

The one who had been there from the beginning were looking between the two dueling men and Yuri, obviously unsure about what he was supposed to do.

Weller finally noticed the man's distress.

"Protect Her Majecty!" he called out, immediately setting the man into motion.

As the apparent soldier answered though, Yuri couldn't help but to get hung up on that one word.

"Majesty?"

The ginger-haired man sprinted around the dueling pair, rushing towards Yuri at what appeared to be a jog for him but could probably be a full-out spurt for professional olympic runners. It wasn't until now hat Yuri noticed the bow and quill the man had thrown over his back.

So he was the one who shot the arrow then?

Once the man reached her side, he fell down on one knee, bowing deeply before he allowed himself to look up into her eyes.

They were among the strangest eyes she had ever seen, almost a kaleidoscope of colors and sparkled just as much. Yuri found it quite hard to look away from them.

Just what was it with these men and their other-wordly looks? Even the more normal looking ones had traits that left her speechless!

"My lady." the man spoke kindly, his voice at a gravely barritone.

The sound of his words managed to snap Yuri out of her marvelled trance.

"Please." he begged, holding out a calloused hand towards her. "It's not safe here."

For a second, Yuri just stared at the offered hand, her arms still tightly clutched around her bag as though it was a shield. And in a way, it was. To keep people from seeing her now exposed bra through the slash in her top.

"I..." she began, throwing a pointed look down at her ankle, winching slightly at the dark bruise that was starting to form on her skin.

Just how hard had that bastard grabbed her?

She tried to block of the sounds of clashing swords as she turned back towards the soldier, finding him glancing down at her ankle as well with an obvious frown on his face.

"I'm afraid my ankle won't support my weight." she muttered, sounding slightly apologetic even though she was very well aware that there was no need for any of that.

The man looked at her again, this time sporting a look that expressed both sympathy as well as a level of apology.

Why were he feeling as though he needed to apologice?

Hasitantly, the man shoveled closer to Yuri, the one hand that had been resting on his knee rising up and around her back. The other hand moved to the bend of her knees.

As he moved, he didn't take his eyes off of her face once. Not even for a second.

"If I may, My lady?" he asked, still keeping his eyes locked on her face, awaiting her answer.

At her light nod, the man carefully positioned his one arm around her back, making sure that his hand didn't end up at the side of her breast, the other arm slid under the fold of her knees. It was at this moment that Yuri finally noticed that she was much, much smaller than this man. To him, picking her up would probably be the same as picking up a child.

"Please..." the man asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "Put your arm around my shoulders."

Not wanting to risk falling to the ground, Yuri carefully positioned her bag on her stomach before she wrapped her right arm around the man's neck, using her left arm to cover the slash in her clothing by letting it grab onto the wrist of her right arm.

This was beyond weird...

It was like... to the man... she weighed little more than a crate of cotton, even with the bag on her stomach.

She tried not to think about it, or the feel of the muscles under her arm.

In stead, she directed her attention back towards the dueling pair, watching as their swords clashed again, and again, and again, sending sparks flying all over the place and making Yuri worry whether or not the grass was about to catch fire.

Taking care not to drop her, the still unnamed man carried her away from the riverbank, up onto the graveled road where he headed over to where the two other soldiers were still waiting. The two of them had gotten off of their horses, standing next to them as they watched the dueling pair.

They were well within hearing distance, though not nearly close enough to get caught up in one of the violent sword swings.

As the man carrying Yuri got closer to the other two, they turned towards them, and their eyes widened when their eyes fell on Yuri.

"Lucas..." one of the men breathed, eyes still pinned on Yuri. "Is that..?"

Yuri turned her gaze towards the man holding her, and she started a little at the annoyed expression he had in those bright, multi-colored eyes.

"His excellency was very insistent on saving her from Von Grantz." he informed the two, his voice holding a tone of authority to it. "So I can only assume that she is."

Adalbert Von Grantz... what an aristocratic name for such a duche.

She turned her attention back to the two soldiers, and at their expressions... she had to wonder whether or not the archer had a higher standing in the army of medieval times, for the weapons they carried were very much medieval.

"But..." the soldier that had been silent up to that point spoke up timidly, gaining the attention of the others in their little, awkward cirkle. "Wasn't it supposed to be a man though?" he turned his eyes (which happened to be a striking yellow color) on Yuri, silently asking her if she were hiding something from them.

She seriously had the urge to reach out her hand and smak him over the head, thus revealing the slash in her clothing and that would sure show them just how female she was.

She didn't do it.

In stead, she gave Lucas's shoulder a squeze, turning his attention towards her.

"Do you think you can put me down now?"

She could have sword there was a tinge of pink on his cheek before he gave a firm nod.

"Of course, My lady."

The man imediately turned towards a smaller bolder a few paces away from the forest, it wasn't at all far from where they were keeping the horses and the other soldiers so she would be in perfect reach should she need anything.

Lucas gently set her down on top of the bolder, making sure that she was comfortable before he let go of her.

Before he could leave however, Yuri called out to him.

"Wait!"

He turned to face her.

"Yes My lady?" he had this edge to his eyebrows in slight concern.

"Your name is Lucas, right?"

He nodded deeply in confirmation.

"Yes, My lady."

She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face.

"Good." she turned her attention towards the dueling two (how can they keep going for so long?). "I hate it when I can't put a name to a face."

Lucas didn't say anything. He just looked at her for a moment, bowed, and walked away.

* * *

Yuri watched as the duel between the two men seemed to increase in ferosity the longer it went on. She suspected that the two would be feeling the strain from the continuous fighting and so, they put more effort into their blows than before, hoping for it to end soon.

Or it could just be annoyance that they were still going, how would she know?

Finally, Weller managed to successfully slash at Adalbert's jacket, leaving a larger gap in the fabric than Adalbert had left in Yuri's own top. Of course, Adalbert had a white shirt underneath his jacket so he didn't actually reveal any skin, but apparently, ir had reached the point where it was quite enough for the larger male.

He glared up at Weller with such a hatered that Yuri could feel it from where she was sitting, several meters away.

"Don't you think it's a waste for your skills to be used by _that_ lot?" he practically spit the word 'that' as though it were poisonous.

Weller didn't seem phased by this coment.

"Unfortunately, Adalbert." he spoke, his breath only slightly heavy from the duel, but his voice was now smoothe, less angered than it had been before. "My love isn't as single-minded as yours."

Without wasting another second, Adalbert dashed towards his horse, whom was the exact same kind as the horses the soldiers used, only his was light beige in color with a long mane rather than the trimmed ones the soldiers were using.

He jumped on top of the horse before turning his attention towards Yuri, who was watching the whole thing as though it were an elaborate stage-play. It was much easier when she was no longer caught up in the fray.

"Be patient for a bit!" he called out to her. "I'll come save you soon!" and then, he was off.

For a second, Yuri just stared after the man as he rode down the part of the road that didn't vanish into the forest. Then, her eyebrow began twitching.

"Save me..?" she muttered darkly to herself, then, she bellowed at the top of her lungs. "YOU TRIED TO KILL ME!"

Of course, by the time she screamed this, the man was already way out of earshot.

Just how fast were those horses?

As Adalbert set off, the two soldiers whom Yuri had yet to put a name on had jumped onto their horses, fully prepared to start off after the duche, but they stoped at the authorative voice of one man whom Yuri had yet to know as more than, Weller.

"Leave him!" he was walking towards them now, sheathing his sword as he went.

"He's one man." the soldier whom had questioned Yuri's gender stated (is he right in the head?). "He's at a disadvantage right now, and we'll probably be able to take him if we can catch up to him." he pulled at his reins as if to empathize his point.

Yuri could tell that it really wasn't working.

Weller frowned at the soldier.

"Our top priority right now is to get Her Majesty to safety!"

The soldier reluctantly nodded to Weller's order, relaxing his hold on the reins of his horse, the other one having already done so at the first order.

Having dealt with the soldiers, Weller turned towards Yuri.

The second his eyes fell on her, his entire demeanor seemed to change. He went from an angered army official to a caring older brother/father figure in the matter of seconds.

Quickly, he rushed dowards Yuri, crouching down in front of her.

"Your Majesty." he spoke, his voice at a much, much softer tone than she had ever heard it before, even though it had a layer of worry to it. "Did Adalbert harm you in any way?" her let his eyes roam across her body.

Unlike so many times before, Yuri didn't get the instinct to back away from the man. His hazel eyes studied her with no attraction what-so-ever, only a level of cornern and caring that she had previously only seen in the eyes of her parents and Shori.

That in itself should be weird considdering she had never met this man before.

And yet...

Feeling a little awkward, her bag still clutched tightly to her chest, Yuri shifted her one leg, causing the man to snap his attention towards it.

"Do you think..." she paused, trying to gather up the right words in her mind. "Do you think you could look at my ankle?" she gave said ankle a slight twitch.

"Is it injured?" the man asked as he carefully lifted up her foot. He frowned when he noticed the ugly buises forming along her skin.

"I don't know." she answered, her voice surprisingly steady despite everything that has happened. "Though, it has been roughly handled twice now, so I can't be sure."

She watched as the man gently lowered the zipper of her shoe before he equally carefully pulled the shoe off, giving him perfect view of her ankle. She couldn't help but to flinch as her foot was suddenly assaulted by the surprisingly cool air.

She kept her eyes locked on the man as he turned her foot over between his hands, gently poking on her bruised skin, watching her reactions before he let out a barely audiable sigh of relief.

"It's nothing bad." he said, carefully putting her shoe back on, loosening the lacing so that it wouldn't be tight enough to bother her bruised skin. "Just a little sore from what it has gone through." he looked up at her face with a kind smile that washed over her being with a sence of familliarity, which in itself, was more than just a little bit strange. "It's a good thing that it wasn't sprained."

Yuri couldn't help the slight smile that spread across her lips, the lips that were beginning to turn a light shade of blue due to her soaked clothing.

"Thank you." she said with a nod, sending her messy hair bobbing.

This apparently caught the man's attention.

"Heka..." he questioned, reaching out his hand for the collection of balled up hair and sticky substance. "What is that in your hair?"

She sensed at the mentioning of it.

"Oh yeah..." she muttered, lowering her head so that she wouldn't have to actually look into the man's eyes as he caught a lock of her hair between his fingers. "I forgot about that."

The man frowned, rubbing the half-dried substance between his index finger and his thumb, obviously not liking the feel of it.

"What is..." he asked, taking his fingers back. His eyes widened when he saw how his fingertips had turned a dark shade of red. "Is this-?" he didn't get to finish his question before Yuri cut him off, clutching the bag tighter than she had ever done before, she probably would have crushed some of it's content had the majority of it not been soft.

"Please don't say it." she didn't borther hiding the light tremmor to her voice.

For a moment, the man just stared at her in apparent confusal, then, the realization dawned upon him and he gave her a kind, gentle smile that Yuri was confused to find that she could actually feel like the rocking of waves crashing to shore, or like soundwaves from a boombox.

Since when were she _this_ sensitive?

"Of course, Your Majesty." the man said, compashion in his voice. Then, he frowned lightly as though a thought had just hit him. "How did it get there though?"

A shudder ran through Yuri's spine.

"C-can..." she stutteres, squeezing the bag as though it were a pillow. "Can we not talk about it here?"

The man looked at her for a moment before he nodded.

"As you wish."

Suddenly, he raised himself off of the ground, casting his shadow over Yuri's frame, making her shiver even more violently at the sudden loss of sunlight.

"We should be leaving anyway." he said, voice much more authorative as he turned his attention towards Lucas whom has been standing close by at attention, seemily having been waiting for something.

That something prooved to be a nod from Weller.

Immediately, Lucas nodded back, turning his attention towards Yuri in a smooth, practiced motion that had no unessesary motion what-so-ever. In fact, it looked more like a portion of a twirl than an actual turn.

He marched over to her, though she noticed that the march was slightly different from how she was accustomed to seeing it. It was a bit more relaxed, with his one hand resting on his belt and the other swaying next to him at the light turn of his shoulder.

Whatever cuntry had these soldiers... it was a lot different from back at home.

This raised the question... where the hell was she? How the hell had she gotten here? And, how much time had passed since she lost consciousness for her to have ended up here?

"My lady." Lucas spoke up as he reached her side, holding out his one hand. "Please allow me to take your bag for the ride."

His voice was kind, but the words spoken sent waves of embarrasment and panic rushing through her body.

"I-I'd rather not..." she found herself muttering.

Why did she have to lock up when embarrassed again?

Weller frowned lightly at her reaction.

"Heka." he said kindly. "Riding with that bag would proove to be very problematic."

Yuri drew in her neck, ducking her head into her bag. She barely dared to glance up at Weller through her bangs before making a slight gesture with her finger for him to come closer.

Frowning even more, he complied with her wishes, bending down low enough and close enough so that she was able to whisper into his ear.

"My clothes... weren't exactly... unharmed." she blushed furiously as she said the last word.

Leaning back slightly, Weller threw a glance at the bag before he allowed his facial features to relax.

"I see..." he whispered back before he straightened out his back.

Now it was Yuri's turn to frown as Weller reached up his hands and proceeded to... unhook, the front of his brown leather jacket.

Yes, unhook, like one unhooks the back of a bra only with the front of a jacket.

What...?

"Heka." Weller suddenly spoke, no longer whispering as he pealed the jacket off of his shoulder, revealing his beige pirate-style shirt underneath. "You look absolutely frozen." he proceeded to wrap the jacket around Yuri's thin shoulders. She felt as though there was a posibility that she would drown in how big the jacket was compared to her. "Please." Weller said, looking into her eyes as he brought the sides of the jacket as close together over her chest as possible. "Wear this until better replacements can be arranged." he gave her a quick wink.

So that's what he was doing...

In that moment, all embarrasment simply, washed away, allowing her to let go of her bag as she carefully slipped into the jacket, making sure not to show anything of what was now safely hidden behind what appeared to be well-worn brown leather.

She didn't look up until she had the last hook in place at the bottom of the jacket.

"Thank you." she muttered, glancing up at Weller again, finding him smiling at her.

As she had thought, the jacket was much to big for her, though it was not a largeness that she was unfamilliar with. She had borrowed Shori's jacket a couple of times when she needed to quickly go outside for barely more than a minute as well as a couple of shirts here and there when an outfit called for them.

Weller seemed to be just about Shori's size, with his jacket going just past her hips where it had ended at his own waist.

Seeing that her torso was now fully consealed underneath Weller's jacket, he turned once again towards Lucas.

"You may proceed."

At his words, Lucas once again reached out his hand towards Yuri, only this time, she graciously handed him the straps of her duffle-bag with a light, apologetic smile that earned her a hidden one in return, as well as a low bow before the ginger turned on his heel with the same movement from before and marched away in the same manner as before.

Now she noticed that there was a light bounce to the walk.

How odd...

Having been studying Lucas's march, Yuri wasn't paying attention to what Weller was doing until she felt an arm slide around her back and under the fold of her knees, and for the second time that day, Yuri found herself lifted into the air like a princess.

Well... since these people apparently thought of her as some sot of royalty she guessed it wouldn't matter.

She were unable to hold back the small shriek of surprise though as she threw her arms around Weller's neck.

"Forgive me, Heka." he spoke in all ernesty. "But you should really stay off that ankle for the next couple of hours." he gave her an apologetic look.

She shook her head lightly.

"It's fine."

He smiled down at her before he started walking towards the horses.

* * *

Weller's horse was the chestnut brown one. It had just been standing there, waiting as everything had been going on, just like all the horses had done.

When the horse spotted Yuri, it gave her what Yuri was confused to recognize as a rather bewildered expression. When she had been carried closer however, it had suddenly brightened and let out an elated whinney that sent the two soldiers whom Yuri had yet to learn the names of staring, gaping in complete shock.

This, of course, only served to make Yuri even more confused.

"She recognizes you." Weller said with a light chuckle.

This... didn't answer anything.

As far as Yuri could remember, she had never once encountered a gigant chestnut horse with clear and strong emotions.

In fact, she had never met a horse at all.

Weller shifted her slightly in his arms, earning him back her attention.

"Do you think you can stand on your own for a few seconds?" he asked, looking down on her with a lightly worried expression.

Yuri couldn't elp but to feel slightly insulted.

"You mean stand on one leg?" she retorded with a light, mocking tone to her voice that earned herself a raised eyebrow from Weller.

An eyebrow that she hadn't noticed up until now, had a small scar running vertically over it, barely missing his left eye.

"No problem." she finished, sounding very much confident, which she was.

She could stant on one leg after having spun around in circkles for god-knows how long thank you very much.

Still with a raised eyebrow, Weller carefully set Yuri down, watching as she settled her non-bruised foot down and allowed her bruised ankle to rest diogonally across the back of the other ankle, allowing the toe to make contact with the ground in such a casual and relaxed position that he couldn't help but to wonder how many times she had taken up that position.

Yuri turned her attention towards the horse as Weller moved towards the saddle.

It was giving her this odd look of adoration that she couldn't help but to reach out her hand, allowing it to brush over it's nose.

A shudder ran through her body, but not an unpleasant kind.

She smiled gently at the animal.

"Heka." Weller spoke up from on top of the horse, snapping Yuri's attention from the horse and back to him. "If you please." he reached out his arm towards her. "Take my hand."

She did as she was asked, having just wrapped her fingers around his wrist before he had hoisted her up onto the horse behind him in the saddle, her lessons being the only thing allowing her the time to throw her one leg over the side so that she wouldn't have to ride side-saddle.

Ensuring that her arms were securely wrapped around his waist, Weller set off into the thickness of the forest, the three soldiers following right behind him.

* * *

 **A/N: Lucas appeared out of nowhere in my head and I just couldn't help but to put him in. He is going to reappear whether you humans like him or not because I have plans for him.**

 **Anyway... please tell me what you think and the third chapter will be up as soon as possible.**

 **I can't wait until I get to write Wolfram into this thing!**

 **So long my darlings!**


	3. Chapter 3

****AN: URG! Sixteen fucking pages!****

 ** **I honest to god had absolutely no intention of allowing this chapter to spawn for so long. I have never really been big about this particular part of the story seeing as it is just a long build-up to what is to come later on, such as Wolfram and everything else.****

 ** **I am also sad to say that I have started studying again so my updates will be even less even if I have gotten a flow for the writing.****

 ** **So anyway. I'm terribly sorry for the wait and please...****

 ** **Enjoy.****

* * *

 ** **Chapter 3:****

 ** **A Crack In The Barrier****

They had been riding for two hours.

At least, that's what it felt like to Yuri.

If only she had thought to keep her cellphone in her pocket and not in the dufflebag, then she would have been able to check.

Then again... then she would have had to had checked the time before the ride even started. And if it had been in her pocket during the ride, then...

It wasn't something to think about.

A few good things had come out of the ride though...

Like she had found out that Weller's first name was Conrart and the two soldiers whom she hadn't known the names of before were called Trevor and Patric. Who was who, though, she didn't know, nor did she feel as though she actually cared at the moment.

The first couple of minutes on the back of a horse had been exciting – exhilarating even. Then as time dragged on, the excitement faded and became a pain-induced boredom. Pain originating from her behind due to the constant movement of the horse and her own inexperience with sitting on a saddle.

Otherwise, she would say that she was doing a pretty good job keeping time with the movements of the horse as it had taken a lot longer than she had anticipated before she started to feel the pain.

She had been so used to seeing nothing but forest and graveled roads, that she was quite surprised when houses appeared over the hill.

And how miserable the houses were.

They were a small collection of positively tiny, run-down cottages that appeared as though each and every one of them had been put together at random with whatever building material was available to them, creating uneven houses with pieces of worn cloths hanging in the doorways in stead of actual doors.

What did look rather promising was the neatly plowed field not to far away and Yuri could practically feel just how healthy the crops were, reaching up towards the sky and practically shining in its close-to-harvest state.

Not too far away, Yuri could see a small gathering of some form of animal that she couldn't see from where she currently was. She thought she had seen curved horns for a split second but otherwise they appeared to be more like some kind of cattle.

As they got closer, she saw the people.

Women and children wearing dirtied and tattered mixed historical clothing in many different shades of brown, beige, and off whites milled around between the houses. Many of the children didn't seem to have any shoes, rushing around the tiny village barefooted, their shins covered in layers of dirt.

It was a miserable sight that only got worse as they rode closer.

The second the people heard the horses approaching, they scurried off into their houses, tightly fitting the piece of fabrics over the doors and windows to ensure that no one could possibly see inside.

As they rode past a couple of houses, Yuri spotted the dirtied face of a child peek through the fabric of one of the doors, only to have him quickly pushed inside by a femenine hand and the fabric once again tightly shut making the doorway resemble a dark maroon canvas.

She couldn't help but to notice the severe lack of older males.

The oldest boy she had managed to spot had been at the very least twelve-years-old. Fourteen, at most.

She felt very saddened at the sight.

They rode straight through the village, over the graveled ground until they were past the misserable excuse for a village and continued up a hill.

She couldn't help but to throw a glance back at the houses.

Turning her head back towards the front, Yuri spotted the river that has previously been hidden between the thickness of the forest. She had believed they had lost it as they had ridden through the shadows, but apparently, the road had come to be through decades of closely following the river. Though where the road was leading them, she still had no idea.

Turning her attention towards said road, Conrart had just directed his horse off of it, steering it up the nearby hill.

Confused, Yuri glanced up towards the top and nearly gasped at what she saw.

There, at the top of the hill, was a cottage that appeared as though it had been directly built into the trunk of possitively the thickest tree she had ever seen in her life. It wasn't that tall but it had thick roots woven out over the top of the hill, one of them forming a staircase through the carved steps into the natural curved shape with a make-shift rail attatched to it's side.

For a second, Yuri was completely speechless.

Conrart pulled the horse to a stop, tying the reins to the saddle before he turned his head to look at Yuri from over his shoulder.

"Heka." he spoke kindly, snapping Yuri's attention back to him.

She gave him a slightly wide-eyed look.

"Please, sit back a bit."

Doing as he asked, Yuri moved back in the saddle and watched as Conrart swung his leg over the horse's head, expertly sliding out of the saddle and landing steadily on the ground.

Conrart straightened out his beige shirt and brown pants before he turned back to Yuri, that kind expression remaining constant on his face.

"Allow me to assist you."

Yuri couldn't help the grateful smile spreading on her own face.

She didn't exactly know why, but there was just something about this man that made her feel as though she could trust him.

As Conrart reached out his hands towards her, she didn't hesitate reaching out her own to place them on his shoulders. She felt his muscles flex as the palms of his hands came in contact with her waist and the next second, she was lifted into the air as though she weighed little more than a bag of dried peas.

Not that she weighed that much normally, just that this guy made her appear so much lighter than she knew she was.

In a matter of seconds, Yuri was standing relatively wobbly on the ground, her legs a little weak from the long ride but it wasn't all that serious.

She tested her sore ankle by applying a bit more weight to it.

While she could feel a light sting that told her that it was still very much injured, it wasn't painful enough to make the pain show on her face. It was more like that annoying pain you have when you have just realized that there was a rock in your shoe.

She resumed the position she had used when Conrart had mounted the horse just to ensure that she wouldn't irritate the ankle more than nessessary.

Making sure that she had regained her balance, Conrart allowed his hands to leave her waist, his one hand falling to the hilt of the sword he had strapped to his belt in what Yuri recognized as more of an instinctive and tic-like movement rather than an unease at her presence.

He smiled down at her from where he towered almost two heads over her, his kind eyes pinned on her face as she brushed off her still-damp clothing.

How her clothing remained wet after that long-a-ride, she didn't know.

Looking around, Yuri noticed Lucas, Trevor, and Patric dismounting their own horses, taking the reins and stroking them over the long necks.

The horses in question gave their riders affectionate looks.

Yuri couldn't help but wonder just what kind of breed of horse this was to be able to have such an obvious large amount of intelligence.

"Tell me, Heika." Conrart spoke up, snapping Yuri's attention back to him. "Have you ridden much up to this point?"

Face displaying nothing but a curious innocence at his question, Yuri hesitated slightly before she shook her head, keeping her eyes locked with his.

"Not once."

He looked surprised at this.

"Really?"

The tone of his voice left Yuri feeling a little self-conscious. She removed her leg from its previous position, stationing it more solidly on the ground behind her in case she felt the need to step further away from the man who was currently staring at her with an expression that looked like a mix of fatherly adoration and slight shock.

"What?" she asked, turning her head to glance at the man more from the corner of her eye in her embarrassment.

She hadn't expected that kind of reaction.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, nervously scratching at her left wrist, her uneven nails leaving red trails on her healthy tanned skin.

"No." Conrart was quick to assure her, his expression morphing into something Yuri could vaguely recognize as parental teasing from all the times her mother pestered her about the male gender. Which, by the way, happened a lot.

Conrart's smile widened, his eyelids lowering over those beautiful hazel eyes curiously speckled with silver flakes throughout the iris.

First Lucas with his kaleidoscope eyes and now this?

"It would appear, your majesty..." Conrart began, speaking with a soothing tone that seemingly rushed over her muscles, forcing them to relax when standing in this man's presence. He leaned foward just a bit, his towering frame casting Yuri's in a light shadow. "That you are a natural."

Yuri suddenly felt as though her face was going to catch fire.

A natural?

Her?

That just couldn't be possible.

Could it?

Not being able to keep eye contact with the very attractive man that was currently staring at her as though she were his daughter and she had just done something not only impressive, but absolutely adorable, Yuri turned her attention towards the very strange cottage they had stopped in front of. She did so just in time to see the front door being thrown open.

"Conrart!" a light barritone voice called out over the sound of the door slamming.

The wood banged against the wall at the force of the momentum, almost causing it to fall off it's hinges, but the newcomer didn't seem to notice this face.

At this point, Yuri could honestly say she felt as though she should have been more surprised at the obvious attractiveness of the man that had just entered her line of vision.

Where Conrart would have been able to pass for an American Hollywood actor, the newcomer was a supermodel.

She couldn't tell much about his physical stature due to the white long-coat he was wearing, not to mention the pale purple cape hanging from his shoulders and sweeping around his long legs as he stalked towards them. She could tell that much at least.

As the man got closer, Yuri was able to get a look at his face.

Yup... she should probably have been more surprised than she actually was.

The man was not only taller than Conrart by what appeared to be a couple of inches, making him even more impossibly tall for her standards, but he carried himself with an air of authority, as well as some hidden skills. Probably weaponry if the way his fingers were seemingly grasping for something that obviously wasn't there as he approached them.

His face was more triangular to the shape with a sharp chin and prominent cheekbones, his pale blue eyes almost blazing the closer he got to them. His long, straight lavender hair (yes, lavender), had been pulled back into a loose updo at the back of his head. A saggy style but it made him look no less intimidating as he finally reached the spot where Yuri and Conrart were still standing.

The man pinned Yuri with one of the most petrifying stares she had ever been exposed to before he turned towards Conrart, his expression speaking volumes of his irritation as well as his confusion at Yuri's presense.

A quick glance around, Yuri noticed how the three soldiers had gotten down on one knee, letting their one arm rest on the merely bent one, their heads lowered in respect as they appeared to be straining to keep their eyes from the man.

She could actually understand why.

The man was freakishly hard not to look at.

"Who is this woman?" the man asked, his smooth tone tipping towards anger as he adressed the other man, seemingly trying to pretend as though Yuri wasn't even there.

Well, that was rude...

Conrart seemed to think somewhere along the same lines.

"Günter." he said soothingly, reaching out one of his arms to gently place his hand at the small of Yuri's back. He sent her a quick smile before he once again turned on the newcomer. "Allow me to introduce Her Majesty, Shibuya Yuri."

Günters beautiful face contorted into what appeared to be infuriated bewilderment.

"What?!" he exclaimed, glaring at Conrart as though he had completely lost his mind. "Are you trying to play a joke with me?" still frowning, he raised his hand to press one finger into Conrarts chest. Yuri couldn't help to notice how the man twisted his nail into the cream colored fabric, almost as though he was picturing running Conrart through with something sharp.

A sword then?

"You clearly," Günter continured, seemingly trying to press his finger in harder when he got no reaction from the man, "informed us that our new monarch had been born male!" he jabbed at Conrart's chest, and still no reaction.

Clearly annoyed with Günters action, Conrart swiped his hand away.

"No, I did not."

As soon as those words left Conrarts lips, Günter appeared to be at a loss for words.

"What?" he asked, frowning lightly.

"I never said Yuri was male." Conrart elaborated, he appeared calm enough but Yuri got the vibe that he was annoyed as well. As though he was timed of people reaching that conclusion. "I never informed anyone of Yuri's gender at all, just that she had been born into a wonderful family with two loving parents and an older brother whom I hoped would grow up into a good man." for a second, the image of her admittedly muscular older brother flashed in Yuri's head. But the image was not at all flattering considering he was drooling over an image seen on his computer.

Her over-protective otaku brother a good man...?

Maybe in a couple of decades.

"For some reason," Conrart continued speaking, forcing Yuri to snap her attention away from her mental picture. "Even though I never specified a gender for Her Majesty, everyone made the assumption that she had been born male." his hand tightened around the hilt of his sword, displaying his level of annoyance at that rumor in as little movement as possible. I never got the chance to correct them."

For a moment, no one said a word.

Yuri stared at the two men in front of her as the two in question kept their artistically colored eyes locked on the other.

She had to hold back a snigger at the sudden thought of a staring-contest between a police dog and a rose bush.

Why that image came to mind... that knowledge eluded her.

"I see..." Günter finally said, breaking eye-contact before he turned towards Yuri, this time with a much more calculating expression than before.

He let his eyes roam over her body. Taking in her shuttering frame drowning in a too-large leather jacket and with her hair covered in something that appeared to be half-dried but was definately not water.

"If I may?" he asked, still using that tone of authority as he adressed her but now, there was a kindness to the words that hadn't been there before. He held out one of his hands towards her, pausing when his fingers hovered just below her chin.

Barely had she gotten the time to nod before Günter had hooked a finger under her chin and started turning her head over, closely examening her features all the while his face slowly shifted in expression the more he took her in.

The face morphed from a cautious curiosity to an unmisstakable look of absolute adoration so strong that Yuri was left frozen in shock at the sight of it.

How strange how expressions can completely change a person's face.

He managed to surprise her even further by letting out a long, content, sigh before he allowed his hand to drop from her chin.

"Such magnificent features." he complemented, barely more than a whisper but she could hear each and every word. "I do not believe I have ever had the pleasure of gazing upon such mesmerising beauty in all my life." he turned back towards Conrart, a hand pressed over his chest.

Yuri was left compretey bewildered as Conrart let out a light chuckle at Günter's apparently humorous reaction.

"I agree." he told the energetic lavender-haired man, corssing his arms in front of his chest. "She has blossomed into quite the little flower over the years."

Alright, all this talk about her being beautiful was starting to become too much for Yuri.

She had been told she was pretty on a few occations, cute almost daily by the members of her family, and she had no problem with that. But to be called beautiful by a pair of men that were two of the most handsome beings she had ever had the pleasure of witnessing in all her life...

Well, she couldn't help but to wonder if these men were all right in the head.

"Erm..." she allowed herself to utter once she found a pause in the men's discussion about her apparently unmachable beauty.

The two immediately turned towards her at the sound of her voice.

"I'm sorry," Yuri practially mumbled, trying to find the right words. "But in my opinion, you are the beautiful one here." she pointed a finger at Günter, trying not to actually look at him as she did so.

God, why did she have to become like this?

That was one of the most contradicting things about Yuri that she knew of.

Whenever she was nervous, she either couldn't stop talking or she couldn't bring herself to talk at all. She didn't know what caused either version to come out but she hated them both.

Right now, she was in the middle of freezing up under the stares the two men gave her.

"Oh, Your Majesty, how you flatter me." Günter exclaimed in great happiness, his hands clasped in front of his chest as he stared down at her.

Why did they have to be so tall?

Once again, Günter sighed contently, his pale blue eyes closing for a moment before he pinned them on Yuri with what appeared to be relieved adoration.

What is with these people and their strange expressions?

Reaching out his arms, Günter put his hands on either side of Yuri's body, gripping her arms just below her shoulders.

He stared her right into the eyes.

"To finally have you here in our kingdom after having awaited your arrival for eighteen years..." Yuri could have sworn she saw the beginning of tears forming in Günters eyes. "It is almost as though I am currently experiencing the most desirable dream in existence." Now, he really was crying, the tears streaming down his face in figurative waterfalls.

Though they weren't too far off.

Feeling a bit awkward, Yuri dug her hand into her pant pocket at pulled out a slightly damp handkerchief. She was actually surprised that it was mostly dry even though her entire being had been soaked to the bone.

She didn't know if she meant that literally or not.

Hesitantly, she held the little square of cloth out to the crying man.

"Will this help?" she asked, surprised at how light her voice turned when she spoke.

"Oh!" Günter exclaimed, seemingly crying even more than he did before now. "How kind." he sniffled as he took the handkerchief from her hands and started dabbing it against his tear-striken cheeks in a very elegant manner.

That manner was broken when he turned the fabric towards his nose and took a long sniff.

Yuri could practically see his eyes rolling into the back of his head, and feeling uncomfortable she tried to take a step back, only to winch at the reminder that her ankle had yet to actually heal. The previous tingling sensation came back full force with a strong but short jab of pain that coursed through her leg and up her spine.

She hissed at the sensation.

"Heika." Conrart immediately reacted, grabbing onto her arm and lifting her up slightly as to not put anymore pressure on that ankle. "You need to be more careful."

Yuri nodded absent mindedly, still keeping her eyes on Günter whom had transformed from a strict college teacher to an adoring high-school fangirl with a much larger vocabulary.

At Conrart's words, Günter's expression immediately turned more serious.

"Heika?" he questioned, raising one hand out towards Yuri, gently putting the obviously calloused hand on her thin shoulder. He looked her straight in the eyes, "You are injured?"

Tentatively, Yuri stepped out of reach for both of the men, now much more mindful not to put all too much weight on her ankle.

"It's nothing too bad." she insisted, her hands raised up as she ignored Conrart's gaze. "My ankle's just a bit sore, that's all."

This seemed to be enough for Günter.

"I see." he sighed with relief, completely ignoring Conrart's raised eyebrow at Yuri's vague expression.

"Oh, this is going to take some getting used to." Günter exclaimed, gaining back the attention from the other two, his one palm resting against his cheek like a schoolgirl would when deeply submerged in the land of dreams. He started rocking his upper torso back and forth slowly. "Having Her Majesty standing right in front of me with her beautifully colored skin." he sighed as he opened his pale blue eyes, pinning her with that adoring gaze. "You are absolurely radiant."

Yuri brought up her hands to clutch at her upper arms.

That gaze...

She didn't feel worthy of it.

"Eh..." was the only thing that managed to break through her surprisingly dry lips considdering her otherwise damp appearal.

Günter was not yet finished.

He stepped towards her again, so fast that he didn't allow Yuri the chance to step away, and reached out a hand towards her embarrassed face. Her cheeks were absolutely blossoming from the blood that was furiously rushing towards them.

He put his hand to her cheek, his thumb possitioned in such a way that the tip of it brushed against her long pitch-black lower eyelashes.

"Those beautiful black eyes..." the man muttered, eyes completely locked with hers. "They sparkle more than the stars in the night." he sighed once again as Yuri felt herself growing dizzy from the ammount of blood struggling to find a place in her head region.

Günters hand traveled towards Yuri's locks.

"And that black hair-" he suddenly stopped as his fingertips trazed a particular part of her head.

The blood that had previously been backed inside of her skull suddenly came flooding down to her feet, leaving her face chalk-white at the word she knew would soon be brought up.

Günters hand traveled further to the back of Yuri's head, carefully feeling at the thick, half-dried clump that had formed there.

"What is this?" he asked carefully before he brought his hand back towards his face, studying the residue on his fingertips like Adelbert had done hours before.

His eyes widened.

"Is that-"

Thankfully, Conrart had been paying attention to the sudden whiteness to Yuri's face and immediately acted, throwing a hand over Günter's mouth before he was able to say that one word that most likely would have made her condition worse than it already were.

Pale blue eyes met silver-speckled hazel, silently questioning the latter's intentions behind the rather insulting action.

Conrart gave Günter a meaning look.

"Her Majesty does not wish for us to say that word out loud when in her presense." he muttered into the lavender haired man's ear, throwing a pointed look towards Yuri's direction where she was still standing as though someone had just walked over her grave.

Realization dawned in Günters eyes when he too looked at the girl.

Seeing that Günter understood, Conrart let his hand fall from the other man's mouth.

Günter practically melted, his eyes still pinned on Yuri as his hands found their way to his chest, letting out a long, fluttering sigh.

"Oh," he breather. "Such a gentle heart."

Not having heard the word, Yuri was finally capable of shaking herself out of the state of panic her body had put itself under in preparation.

The more leveled pounding of "that liquid" in her body made her feel dizzy for a second, forcing her to put a couple of fingers to her temple before she looked up at the two men that were both staring at her.

One with a light hint of worry.

The other...

"To not even be able to speak the word is..." Günter sighed with that level of admiration again, as though Yuri had just saved a puppy from being run over by a car. "Oh." Yuri could practically see the lavender haired man fanning himself like an overly dramatic teenage girl.

It didn't take long though before he seemed to catch himself with how he was acting and snapped back into serious mode.

"How did it get there though?" Günter asked, stepping back towards her from where Conrart had pulled him back when he had caught him by the mouth. "Did someone attack you?!" the look in his eyes became angry at the mere thought.

Conrart was the one who decided to answer.

"Adelbert was with her when we got there."

Immediately, the whole atmosphere of the hill changed.

The tension and anger built up in the air to the point where Yuri could practically see it seeping out from around the two men in front of her, and even the three that were still standing somewhere behind her.

"What did you say?" Günter screamed, his voice echoing over the hill. The fury was very much visible in the tension in his shoulders and the faint pulsing of the veins on his neck.

"We don't know how he knew she would be arriving today." Conrart said, confirming what he had said previously without actually having to repeat it. "Though there is a chance that he wasn't even aware of her true identity." he crossed his arms in front of his chest as he spoke.

Identity?

Were he talking about the whole reason why they were insistent on calling her 'Her Majesty'?

She was snapped out of her thoughts at the sensation of fingers once again brushing over that lumped up portion of her hair.

She really wanted to do something about that, and soon.

"Heika." Günter spoke up, turning Yuri's attention towards him. Her black eyes locking with his pale blue ones. "Did that man do this to you?"

It felt weird having that amount of anger right in her face, even if it wasn't directed at something she had done.

It made her feel even more uncomfortable.

Carefully as to not agrivate the man even further, Yuri raised her hand to knock Günter's wrist out of the way, releasing his fingertips from her hair as she once again found herself taking a catious step away from the possitively overly beautiful male.

If she found a male more beautiful than this one...

Well, she didn't know what she would do.

"No." she answered the man as calmly as she could. "I'm not entierly sure how it happened but..." she took a pause, not quite knowing how she was supposed to tell the men this, considdering the fact that they obviously disliked this 'Adelbert' person more than she did.

Finally, she decided to just spill it.

"Apparently, that man saved my life." she threw up her arms, palms out in surrender as she prepared herself for the reaction, closing her eyes as she waited.

She didn't have to wait long.

"Saved you?" Günter screamed as though the very thought was absolutely laughable.

Yuri just stood there, peering at the man through half-open eyes until the echo of his yell ebbed away over the grenery surrounding them.

"Yes..." she answered timidly, still not daring to fully open her eyes. She gulped quietly before she dared to open her mouth again. "He told me that... he had found me with an impact wound to my skull... or, something like that." she waved her hand absent-mindedly as though that fact held no real importance.

The two men however, apparently didn't agree with her.

"Heika." Conrart immediately reacted, stepping up to her with a somewhat worried look on his face. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her slightly towards him. "Let me see."

It wasn't a request, or a question.

Standing perfectly still, Yuri tried not to mind the fingertips carefully prying apart the half-dried clump, gently tugging at section after section that was only made more uncooperative thanks to the braid her hair was still in, a very tight braid mind you.

Finally, she felt the tugging seasing, closely followed by the feather-light prodding to the skin covering her skull, searching for something.

She knew he had found it when a shot of electricity shot through her body, causing her right arm to give away a violent jerk right before the reaction fully registered and her mouth gave off the natural reaction one usually got from that kind of painful jerk.

"Ow!"

Conrart immediately retracted his fingers, moving back to her line of vision.

At Günter's and Yuri's own confused expressions, he gave them a look of absolute amazement, with a hint of confusion.

"Amazing." he muttered, mostly to Günter.

If the two men were going to begin talking as though Yuri wasn't even there, she would have to do something about it.

One did not insist that someone was some sort of royalty only to start ignoring them.

As though sensing Yuri's light annoyance, Conrart turned towards her, looking her right in the eyes to properly deliver his conflicted emotions.

"There's barely a scar." he explained, now more to the two of them, thankfully. "Though obviously, that area is still very sensitive to any form of impact."

Rolling her eyes, Yuri crossed her arms in front of her chest.

The moment that jolt had run through her body, every trace of her previous nervousness completely vanished, leaving only what she could describe as a somewhat superior annoyance. Meaning that she was annoyed with the whole situation she had somehow found herself in and she was not about to let anyone push her around any more.

Basically, she had turned into the stereotypical redhead.

Which was weird considering that was not how she usually acted.

Did the jolt do something to her personality?

Thankfully, when she realized this, it was as though that feeling of superiority drained away, leaving only the feeling of annoyance, but at a much more moderate and less, out of character way.

She frowned to herself.

Where had that come from?

"Heika." Günter spoke up, succeeding in bringing Yuri out of her silent pondering. "Do you have any idea just how that man managed to heal you?"

More out of familiarity than anything, Yuri attempted to shift her weight from one leg to the other, only to catch herself when her sore ankle started to ache under the action.

Instead, she took to twirling a loose lock of black hair around her right index finger.

"He..." the frown made it's way back to her eyebrows, she tightened her finger around the lock as she tried to recall the exact words Adelbert had told her when she had just woken up. A time that just had to be the most fuzzy part of her memory.

"He mentioned that he used some kind of liquid..." she finally managed to answer after a brief moment of silent. Her finger already starting to turn a light shade of red from the lock constricting the bloodflow.

Her words seemed to snap Günter into some sort of 'Teacher-mode'.

"What kind of liquid?" he practically demanded as he pushed in closer to where she was standing, ignoring Conrarts hand as the other man tried to hold him back.

At the very least somebody had noticed Yuri's difficulty remembering.

"I... I don't think he told me the name..." Yuri released her finger from her hair, said lock remaining in the curl she had put it in from it's still-damp state.

Seriously, it had been hours! Why in the world did she still look as though she had just been pulled out of a pond?

Squinting her eyes, Yuri put the tips of her fingers to her temple as she desperately tried to grasp for her fuzzed up memories.

Had she been paying more attention, she would have noticed a strange tingling in those fingers. Though, even if she had, she probably wouldn't have assosiated it with the tingling from the blood rushing back into her index finger. Even if her middlefinger tingled as well.

Surprisingly enough, the pressure to her temple actually worked!

She should try that more often.

Visibly relaxing, Yuri found herself brave enough to open her eyes fully and actually look at the two men in front of her.

"He said it was a mixture of..." she scrunched up her face again, simply because of how unfamilliar the words in her memory were. "Babble root and... a blossom from the bobbing willows..." she glanced up at the two men. "Or something like that."

Realization dawned upon Günters face a whole lot faster than Conrarts.

"The Babbilow solution." The beautiful man whispered to no one in particular. "How did Adelbert get a hold of something like that?"

Yuri absentmindedly worried if her frowning would end with her getting a few wrinkles, even though she has just bearly reached the age of sixteen.

"The 'what' now?" she asked, really not expecting to get an answer from the two men.

However, she was pleasantly surprised.

"The Babbilow solution." Conrart answered her, seeing as Günter was too preocupied doing whatever in his own mind. It almost looked as though he was imagining himself tracing Adalbert down and beating him to a pulp, preferably with his bare hands.

Yuri was forced to turn her attention back towards Conrart as she man apparently wasn't finished in his explanation.

Well... they're progressing.

"It is said that one drop of that liquid has the power to heal all injruies and cure any form of ailment, even the internal ones." he didn't take his eyes off of her as she spoke. His eyes being the only thing clearly speaking of the sheer distress he was feeling at this little piece of news.

"We need to track him down and take it from him." Günter declared, snapping out of his thoughts so suddenly that Yuri had to hold herself back from jumping at the outburst. "Who knows what kind of things that man can do with a solution that powerful." he turned towards Conrart, finding the other man nodding along with what he was saying.

Yuri once again forgot herself and attempted to shift her weight from one foot to the other.

Her hiss did manage to catch the attention of the two men.

She held up a hand before either of them could ask her about her condition.

A rather smug expression made its way onto her mouth.

"Good thing he doesn't have it then."

Now it was the two men's turn to frown at her words.

"Heika?" Conrart questioned slowly, almost as though he was afraid of the answer.

"What do you mean?" Günter found himself asking, though he shared the same kind of demeanor as Conrart did.

Smiling slightly with her lower lip caught between her teeth, rocking her upper body from side to side with her arms crossed, Yuri wallowed in the confusion of the two men, feeling as though the two of them deserved after herself having been left completely in the dark about the whole situation.

Revenge was sweet.

She gave it a couple of more seconds before she decided that it was enough.

"Lucas!" she called out, startling the two men in front of her as she turned around to look for the familliar head of copper hair.

The man in question snapped into attention. His hands clasped behind his back with his legs slightly parted where he stood by his horse.

She smiled kindly at him.

"Can I have my bag back?" she called, her arms still crossed.

"Certainly, My Lady." came Lucas's reply with a sway from one leg to the other.

Was that this place's equalent to clicking your heels together?

Lucas carefully removed the bag from his saddle with little difficulty, if any at all, before he turned to carry the thing over to the three apparently socially superior people to him. Though, Yuri had to give him credit that he didn't appear to be at all nervous to be in their presence.

She decided that Lucas was now an official member on her list of people she liked.

Previously, he had been on her list of people she tolerated, which was a lot longer, with the list of the people she hated being the shortest one, mainly consisting of Takagi Kaito.

Once he reached them, Lucas bowed deply as he presented Yuri with her bag.

Her previously smug expression melted into a kind one as she reached out her hand to take the bag's straps.

As the weight on his arms lightened, Lucas looked up, allowing their eyes to meet.

Now don't get the wrong idea. Yuri was by no means romantically interested in Lucas, she merely thought that he was an attractive man that had showed great respect not only towards her but to everyone around, apart from the other soldiers, whom, quite frankly, had deserved the little bit of irritation he had showed them.

It was just...

His eyes...

At the moment, they were a beautiful mixture of purple, green, and yellow, practically shining like crystal as the light bounced off of them.

She gave herself a mental shake to snap herself out of the temporary trance those eyes had put her under.

Really... what was up with the men in this place?

"Thank you." she managed to say, her smile just the tinyest bit strained as she pried her eyes away from Lucas's and lifted the bag from his hands. She threw the longer strap over her shoulders before she felt it safe enough to attack the zipper with her hands.

The three men watched in shared confusion as Yuri carefully rummaged through the bag's content. Seeing as it also had a spare set of underwear in there somewhere, she didn't want to risk the three still technically strangers spotting them.

"Heika..." Günter spoke up, apparently having had enough of not knowing.

Welcome to Yuri's world mister!

"What are you-?" she didn't allow him to finish.

At that very moment, she felt her fingers close around a cold, crystal-like surface that was rounded to the shape and had somehow managed to worm itself into the folds of her towel during the rummaging, almost as though the thing hadn't wanted to be found.

A wide smile on her face, Yuri practically yanked her arm out of the bag and held the object high up in the air with a loud scream in triumph.

"Found it!"

For a long moment, the three men just spent a long moment staring at the round bottle of tinted crystal filled with what appeared to be a murky liquid in the light of the sun.

Yuri watched as their expressions morphed from continued confusion to absolute and total shock. This left her feeling quite pleased with herself.

Conrart was the first one to snap out of his shock, turning his eyes back to Yuri.

"He gave it to you?" he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper through his shock.

Yuri recoiled in disgust.

"Of course not." she practically spat, lowering the bottle to chest-height. Günter and Lucas's eyes followed it as it descended. She shrugged one shoulder in a dismissing manner, not looking at either of the three men standing in front of her. "I snatched it from his pocket when I was dangling upside-down his back."

It was at this moment that Günter and Lucas finally managed to snap their eyes away from the bottle and actually look at her.

Günter frowned once her words finally registered.

"Your Majesty..."

"What?" Yuri asked, looking up at him from where she had been looking at the bottle from where she had been fiddling with it in her hand.

The three men were all looking at her with a look borderline disapproval.

She sighed, rolling her eyes in mild annoyance before raising her hands.

"I don't take too kindly to being manhandled." she stated, giving her head a light jerk as the men recoiled at her choice of words. "The guy actually had it coming." she looked at them again before she gave them a bit of an embarrased smile. "Don't worry, it's not a habit, just revenge."

Thankfully, this seemed to be enough for the men.

Almost hesitantly, but still with an air of aristocrasy to him, Günter stepped up towards her, holding out his hand.

"May I?" he looked pointedly towards the bottle still in her hand.

Yuri only spared a brief glance at the bottle before she let her fingers loosen around the crystal, allowing it to succumb to the laws of gravity for a split second before she caught the bottle by the screw-on pipette-cap and held the bottle out towards the lavender haired male in an offering manner, ignoring the brief flashes of panic that had flashed across their faces the moment they had seen the bottle slip.

It was crystal for heaven's sake, surely it was more durable than glass, otherwise they wouldn't have put such a valuable liquid in it!

Günter however, took the bottle from Yuri's hold, handling it as though it were made out of stage glass – that kind that breaks easily without anyone getting hurt.

Carefully, he screwed up the bottle, removing the cap so that he may look at the pink liquid still inside the pipette. He studied it through the light of the sun with an expression of absolute amazement on his face.

A few seconds later, he allowed himelf to close the bottle up again, slowly turning towards Conrart as he did.

"I have only seen it once before in my life..." he barely whispered, eyes still locked on the bottle before he slowly raised his gace to meet Conrart's. "But this is most certainly a properly-made Babbilow solution."

Lucas and Conrart both turned their eyes to the bottle, staring at it as though they just couldn't believe that it was that close. It was within their reaching distance, and they looked as though the bottle would disappear in a cloud of smoke right in front of their eyes.

"I shall put it in safe storage until we reach the capital." Günter declared, carefully putting the bottle in a pouch strapped to the side of his belt.

The second the bottle was out of sight, it was as though Lucas and Conrart were snapped out of a hypnosis, even shaking their heads to rid their minds of the clouded state the presense of such a legendary potion had put them under.

Günter appeared as though he didn't notice this.

"Hieka..." he spoke, turning back towards Yuri with a worried expression on his face. "I have to ask." he looked almost apolegetic at this point. "Did that man do anything to you aside from healing your wounds?"

Once again, Yuri found herself frowning.

Hadn't he heard her when she had said she had been dangling upside down Adelbert's back? Just what did it take for these men to actually listen to the words the person they call 'Heika' says when she's standing right in front of them?

"Well..." Yuri began, feeling the level of irritation altering her regular speech pattern. "I had this little inkling that he was trying to kidnap me when he threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes."

Alright, she may have sounded just a little bit too disinterested...

"What?" Günter looked as though he was silently pleading with her to tell him she were lying.

Conrart however, decided to confirm her statement.

"When we arrived," he began, Günter's neck looking as though it was going to snap from how fast he had turned it in the other man's direction. "Adelbert had her pinned to the ground, a sword raised above his head as he was about to skewer her with it." he ignored Günter's absolutely horrified expression as he nudged his head in Lucas's direction. "She would have been killed had Lucas not managed to deflect the blade with one of his arrows."

Thinking back at it, Yuri felt the need to do the one thing she had forgotten to do at the time it had happened.

She raised a pointed finger at Lucas.

"Which I am eternally grateful for, by the way."

The look that spread across Lucas's face could only be described as a form of bewildered joy, as though he hadn't actually expected her to be thankful for saving her life just a few hours ago.

Quickly catching himself, Lucas schooled his expression before giving Yuri a deep bow.

"I am pleased to be of use, My Lady."

It was a weird thing, being bowed to. After having spent so many years of her life living in a modest household with the only one having ever given her any form of attention higher than that which a friend gives another friend backrearing horribly right in her face, seeing Lucas bowing so formally, and so deeply made unpleasant shivers run down Yuri's spine.

Thanfully, the moment was broken at the sound of Günter's loud cursing.

"That bastard!" he screamed, his fists shaking at the sides of his body. "To do such a thing to Her Majesty!" he immediately started to stalk away from them, seemingly heading towards the bottom of the hill with determination in his steps.

Yuri didn't know what he was thinking about doing but she didn't think she quite liked it.

"Wait a second!" she screamed after him, spinning around on her good ankle so that she was able to face his retreating back.

He did stop, but not because she had said it.

He turned around towards her with a curious expression.

"Come to think of it..." he muttered just loud enough for her to hear as he walked right back up the hill, his eyes firmly pinned on her.

"What?"

"Heika." Günter spoke much more softly now that he was standing right in front of her. "How come you are able to speak it our language?"

It was as though time itself stopped moving.

Their language?

What did he mean by their language?

They were all speaking Japanese right?

Those strange words she had heard the moment she had woken up flashed in her head.

She had to ask.

"You're not speaking Japanese...?" Günter's bewildered expression perfectly matched her own. "Cause that's what I'm hearing..." she gestured pointedly with her finger to the air surrounding her ear, twirling it slowly.

Günter shook his head.

"We are not." he replied gently, almost as though he were afraid the words would physically hurt her should he not. "We are speaking the language of this world."

Another lapse, another unresponsive word to her mental registration bank.

"World?" Yuri repeated slowly, turning the word into a question.

Conrart, apparently sensing her distress, cautiously stepped up behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, carefully turning her towards him so that he may look her in the eyes.

"Correct, Heika." he replied kindly, no longer smiling, his face completely serious to show that he meant every single sylible that slipped out between his lips. "We are no longer on Earth."

Everything swayed.

It was as though reality came crashing down around her the split second the last sound slipped through the man's almost slow-motion moving mouth.

Reality shouldn't crash down on you like that until you reach your mid-life crisis! Or perhaps twenty, but deffinately not when one is barely sixteen! Come on!

By the time Yuri finally came back from her hurricane of thoughts, she realized she was very close to hyperventilating. The three men had surrounded her, calling out to her as they tried to calm her down from her moment of panic.

It took a good few minutes before Yuri's breaths finally started to come down to more of a normal and less hectic pace.

"H-how-" Yuri panted, shaking her head to try and force herself to calm down even further. She looked up at the first set of eyes she found, Conrart's. "How does that even happen?"

Conrart gave her an apologetic look before he heaved her up onto her feet.

When had she fallen?

"Now it not the time for that Heika."

Seriously?

Yuri could do nothing but stare at him in disbelief.

How the hell could he expect her to wait after having dropped a bomb like that?

He apparently decided to ignore her expression, looking somewhere else with something akin to guilt flashing in his eyes.

Yes! Feel bad for making her feel as though the ground had ripped open under her!

Conrart cleared his throat before forcing himself to look at Yuri again.

"What can you remember when waking up in this world?" he asked, keeping his voice just low enough for their little group of four to hear him.

The apparent seriousness of the question forced Yuri out of her disbelief.

She scrunched up her face as she tried to sort through the jumbled state of her memories.

"Erm..." she groaned, placing her fingers to her temple again. Now more because on an incoming headache than anything. "It was weird..."

"Weird how?" Conrart immediately asked, sounding somewhat impatient.

"I..." she stuttered, trying to find the words. "I remember hearing a different language..." she waved a hand in the hair. "Like... just after I woke up."

The three men waited for her to continue, though the air surrounding them was anything but patient.

"I didn't understand the words but..." she screwed up her face. She had remembered before the bomb had been dropped, not it was like trying to bring out the memories through a thick layer of mudd. "But then..." her eyes finally lit up as the memory came back to her. "The language changed. Like that Adelbert person suddenly decided to speak another language mid-word."

She looked up at Conrart as the man let his hands slide away from her arms.

She could see the look of startled realization on his face, even though he was obviously trying to keep it in check if the way he raised his hand to cover his mouth in a similar manner to the familliar 'thinking-pose'. Concealing his shock behind pondering.

What in the world?

Finally, Conrart managed to fully compose himself enough to let his hand fall.

"That Adelbert..." he muttered darkly. "He must have acticated the memories you had during your past life somehow..."

For the third time in such a short window. Yuri found herself at a loss for words.

Honestly, what more were they going to drop on her?

"Past life?" Yuri barely managed to contain her stutter, feeling the warmth of accomplishment as she realized that she had finally fully calmed down from the panic.

Probably thinking that she was on the road to another panic attack, Günter quickly stepped in with his own hand on her shoulder, keeping his voice velvety as he spoke to her.

"Your soul was given to you after the previous owner died." he explained, the carefulness in his tone equalled that of a doctor informing their patient that they had a chronic disease. "The identitiy of the previous owner is however... unknown."

From the corner of her eye, Yuri could see Conrart looking away from them.

The identity wasn't as unknown to him as it was to Günter, she was absolutely sure of it now.

Most likely, he had been very close to the person if his reaction to the activation of her past life's memories were anything to go on.

For some reason, Yuri felt as though this particular piece of information wasn't as new to her as it were.

She looked back at Günter, deciding to leave Conrart alone for now.

If he didn't want to talk about it, who was she to press it out of him.

Besides, he might just ignore her again.

"Why?" she asked the lavender haired man, not exactly expecting to get an answer considdering their previous answers to her larger questions.

"Later, Heika." Günter practicaly whispered, just as Yuri had expected. "We need to focus on this matter right now." he bent down even lower, and when he spoke again, Yuri could just barely hear it through the sound of his breath hitting the shell of her ear. "Besides..." he paused, throwing a quick glance around them. "Who knows who might be listening in."

Oh... so that was why they didn't tell her aything.

Were the answers to her questions that big trade secrets that they didn't want any outsider finding out about them?

If so, Yuri really wanted to know just what the hell was happening to her.

And soon!

Günter leaned back away from her, casting a brief glance towards the back of her head.

He seemed to suddenly me struck by an idea.

"Your injury was to the back of your head, correct?" he asked, sounding as though he was about to hit a breakthrough.

"Yes..." Yuri answered him carefully, behinding her spine backwards to try and gain some distance from the man currently towering over her.

His expressionbrightened considderably.

"Then..." he held a finger up in the air. "The Babbilow solution must have then seeped directly into your brain." Yuri felt a violent shiver run over her body at the mention of _that_ word.

Conrart, who apparently finally managed to gather himself up enough, decided to step in once he realized Günter's train of thought. He, who understood Yuri just a few hours better than Günter would at the very least know not to let something like _that_ slip.

"The memories of your past life must have reacted to the liquid's healing abilities..." he continued speaking, causing all eyes to turn towards him. "And open up a crack in your reincarnational barrier."

"The what now?" Yuri asked, her eyebrows raised behind her bangs.

Conrart allowed a small smile to form on his lips before he glanced at Günter.

The lavender haired man had been glaring at Conrart from the moment the man had started speaking. Obviously, explaining technicalities was his job.

He turned purpossfully towards Yuri whilst clearing his throat.

"The reincarnational barrier is the mental dam that keeps one from abtaining the memories you gathered during your previous life." he explained slowly, as if talking to a child. "It is very difficult to break just a tiny portion of it, and in all of our recorded history, only one person has ever been able to fully break his down."

He may have tried to explain it as simply as possible, but Yuri was still left in the dark.

How did one break the barrier?

Why was there a barrier to begin with?

How did they even discover the existance of the barrier?

How many times in 'recorded history' have someone been reincarnated?

The questions just kept coming, but she knew she wouldn't get a proper answer should she decide to voice them.

She opted for the safest right.

"Right..." she breathed, draging out the word as slowly as she could to empathise her true lack of understanding, and possibly relay to the men that she expected some simpler explanations later on, just obviously not now.

Conrart smiled at her as he stepped up to her again.

"The crack must have been just large enough for the memory of the language to return." he said as though speaking about a barrier for the memories of your past life was the most regular thing in the world. "And a good thing to." he looked at Günter and Lucas respectively as he stopped right in front of Yuri, waiting a second before he looked down at her. "Otherwise, we might have had a much harder time trying to communicate with you."

That kind of thing was frightening to think about to Yuri.

Not having understood anyone, she may have came with Adelbert just to find a way to understand the language, and then what would have happened.

She groaned as she gently rubbed her temple, closing her eyes as she did.

"I'm still confused." she moaned softly to herself.

Conrart gave her a kind look as he put his hands on her shoulders.

"We will explain everything once we are inside." he promised, gently turning her around towards the stairway-root of the tree in front of her. It was quite amazing how the tree could still sprout a lush crown of green leaves with everything that had been done to it. "We may be able to spare a few drops of the solution to relieve you of your ankle pains." Conrart smiled almost suggestively from the corner of her eye.

Now in his element, Günter stepped up in front of Yuri, standing in all of his aristocratic glory as he spun, his cape fanning out around him from the movement.

"Come this way, Heika." he gestured with a hand towards the cottage. "A small bath has been prepared for you inside." he turned and gave a rather sheepish expression. "I hope a smaller wash-tub will be to your liking."

Truth be told, the very second he had mentioned the word bath, it was as though a weight a hundred times her own had been lifted from her shoulders.

A wide smile of relief spread across Yuri's lips.

"Anything that can help me get most of the sticky substance out of my hair is perfect, thank you." she gently traced the area in question as she spoke, still smiling.

"Ah!" Günter exclaimed, the hancerchief that Yuri had completely forgotten she had lent to him suddenly in his free hand as he pressed it against his cheek, tears once again forming in the corner of his eyes. "Such a gracious soul!" and with that, he turned towards the cottage and practically skipped up the stairs before disappearing in through the front door.

Conrart gave Yuri a look.

"Shall we?" he asked before he started walking himself.

Yuri locked her lower lip between her teeth.

She had been getting this stange feeling from the very moment she had first laid eyes on Conrart, and she honest to god, wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to just go for it.

"Erm, Conrart?" she hesitantly called out to the man, her feet still firmly planted on the ground.

The man in question paused in his steps, turning back towards Yuri with a gentle expression on his face, his lips twisting into a gentle smile as he looked at her.

"Yes?" he asked equally gently as his smile.

"Have we..." Yuri felt herself hesitant in asking the question. "Have we met before?" at his confused expression, she knew she had to elaburate. "I feel as though I know you."

For a split second, Yuri could see an emotion deep in his silver spekled eyes. An emotion that she didn't have the time to recognize before he masterfully hid the emotion back behind a large wall of genuine caring.

If this had been a few years ago, she probably would have brushed that look as nothing. But she was not that person anymore.

However, instead of bringing it up, she decided to leave it alone. She didn't want to provoke this man she barely knew, even though she still got this very familliar feeling from him.

"That may just be because of the crack in the barrier." Conrart explained with that same smile. "But no, you and I have never formally met face-to-face."

There was something hidden in that sentence. It would probably even have been obvious to her old self. But once again, she decided to just leave it alone for now.

Also, at the moment, she just really, really wanted to get inside and get cleaned up. Possibly even change out of her clothes so that she would finally be able to give Conrart back the jacket that was starting to become too hot for her.

"I see..." she breathed, her fingers tightening around the strap of her bag.

Still smiling, Conrart gestured with his hand towards the cottage.

"After you?"

Hesitating for a split second, Yuri finally put one foot in front of the other and started walking towards the staircase, listening to the squishing sounds from her still wet shoes. Well, to say walking would be a lie. It was more like limping.

Seeing her problem, Lucas took it upon himself to help her. Rushing up to her just in time to steady her as she made her way up each step.

As she ascended, Conrart remained exactly where he had been standing, looking up at her as she disappeared into the cottage.

* * *

 ** **AN: Alright humans! That was it! That was a long-as chapter that I honest to Shinou hope you enjoyed.****

 ** **I have no idea when I will update again but I will try to write whenever I get the chance alright?****

 ** **Next chapter will cover the reveal of Yuri's title and hopefully some springkling of my own ideas as well.****

 ** **Anyhow... I really hope you liked this and I'll be back whenever I find the time.****

 ** **So long my Darlings!****


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